# Ivor Halstead > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ivor_Halstead > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Ivor_Halstead.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Halstead > Source revision: 1305338319 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Ivor Halstead** (11 October 1888 – 7 April 1959) was a British journalist and author, editor of the *[Daily Sketch](/source/Daily_Sketch)*. Born in 1888 at [Dewsbury](/source/Dewsbury), in the [West Riding of Yorkshire](/source/West_Riding_of_Yorkshire), Halstead was one of the sons of William Hartley Halstead and his wife Mary Ellen Scatchard.[1] He was baptised in 1889 in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel at Eastborough, Dewsbury, together with an older brother, William Edgar, born in 1886.[2] In the [1911 United Kingdom census](/source/1911_United_Kingdom_census), the family was at The Woodlands, Ings Road, Dewsbury, and Halstead was listed as a Journalist.[1] During the [First World War](/source/First_World_War), Halstead enlisted in the [2/1st East Riding of Yorkshire Yeomanry](/source/East_Riding_of_Yorkshire_Yeomanry#2/1st_East_Riding_of_Yorkshire_Yeomanry), a cavalry regiment, and was disembodied on 28 June 1919, meaning that his unit returned to a part-time status.[3] By 1926, Halstead had been appointed as editor of the *Daily Sketch* and was also working with [Professor A. M. Low](/source/Archibald_Low) on the script of a film to be called *Cosmos*, about the history of the world from the beginning of time.[4] In 1927 Halstead was the initial acting organiser for the founding of the Women's Automobile and Sports Association (WASA),[5] before it was formally constituted by a committee of rich women in 1929.[6] Halstead's *Wings of Victory* (1940) was described in a review in December of that year as “the first story of the [Battle of Britain](/source/Battle_of_Britain) to appear in a book”.[7] In October 1941, a note from [Leslie Rowan](/source/Leslie_Rowan), Private Secretary to [Winston Churchill](/source/Winston_Churchill), informed Churchill that Major W. Turner, assistant director of Public Relations, was asking Churchill to agree to be interviewed by Halstead, who was writing a book on tanks.[8] A book about the [General Post Office](/source/General_Post_Office), *Post Haste*, was a war-time best seller and in 1952 was translated into Japanese by G. Miyaki and published in Japan.[9] Halstead's *The Gentle Sex* (1943), written with [Leslie Howard](/source/Leslie_Howard) and [Jean Knox](/source/Jean_Knox), Director of the [Auxiliary Territorial Service](/source/Auxiliary_Territorial_Service), was to promote the [film of the same name](/source/The_Gentle_Sex) directed by Howard and starring [Joan Greenwood](/source/Joan_Greenwood).[10] ## Personal life On 30 July 1932, Halstead married Ada Baxter in [Wandsworth](/source/Wandsworth), and in September 1939 they were living at 66/68 South Side, [Clapham Common](/source/Clapham_Common). He died at 30 Rutland Gardens, [Hove](/source/Hove), on 7 April 1959.[1] ## Selected publications - *Bulletins from Britain* (E. P. Dutton and Co., 1940) - *Wings of Victory: a tribute to the R.A.F.* (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1940; Right Book Club, 1941) - *Heroes of the Atlantic: the British Merchant Navy carries on* (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1941; [Right Book Club](/source/Right_Book_Club), 1942) - *The Truth about Our Tanks* (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1943) - *The Gentle Sex: the Great Film Story of Life in the A.T.S.* (London: Fosh & Cross, 1943), with [Leslie Howard](/source/Leslie_Howard) and [Jean Knox](/source/Jean_Knox) - *Post Haste: The Story of the Post Office in Peace and War* (London: Lindsay Drummond, 1944) - *Hansard Digest 1946–1947* (London: Whitehall, 1947) - *The State We Are In* (London: Whitehall, 1947) - *Bond Street* (London: Barcliff, 1952) ## Notes 1. [“Ivor Halstead”](https://www.halstedresearch.org.uk/p49.htm#i4842), halstedresearch.org.uk, accessed 5 November 2022 1. *Baptisms solemnized in the Wesleyan-Methodist Chapel, Eastborough, Dewsbury, in the County of York* [No. 49, No. 50](https://www.ancestry.co.uk/discoveryui-content/view/277637:2268?tid=&pid=&queryId=4cf6827c5f3873a99a9bb4dc35be3aee&_phsrc=nJD2&_phstart=successSource), 1889, ancestry.co.uk, accessed 8 November 2022 (subscription required) 1. "Ivor Halstead, The Woodlands, Dewsbury, Yorks" in *British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920*, ancestry.com, accessed 5 November 2022 (subscription required) 1. [Rachael Low](/source/Rachael_Low), *History of British Film*, Vol. 4 (2013), [p. 196](https://books.google.com/books?id=6UbaAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA196) 1. "SPORTSWOMEN'S CLUB", in *Birmingham Daily Gazette*, 26 April 1929, [p. 7](https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000669/19290426/129/0007), accessed 8 January 2023 1. ["What WASA was"](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/april-1996/76/what-wasa-was?v=79cba1185463), [https://www.motorsportmagazine.com](https://www.motorsportmagazine.com), April 1996 1. *International Affairs Review Supplement*, Vol. 19, Issues 3-4, 1 December 1940, pp. 198–199, [https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/19.3-4.198f](https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/19.3-4.198f) 1. [CHAR 20/26/29-31](https://www.churchillarchive.com/explore/catalogue?id=CHAR%2020%2F26), churchillarchive.com, accessed 5 November 2022 1. *Newspaper World*, Issues 2841-2877, (1952), p. 164 1. [The Gentle Sex: The Great Film Story of Life in the A.T.S.](https://www.bdcmuseum.org.uk/explore/item/34832/), bdcmuseum.org.uk, accessed 5 November 2022 --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ivor Halstead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Halstead) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivor_Halstead?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.