Maurice Denton Welch (1915-1948) was an English writer and painter.
From the guide to the Denton Welch Typescript, undated, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)
Denton Welch (1915-1948), novelist and artist, was born in Shanghai, China, on 29 March 1915, the youngest of the three sons of Arthur Welch (d1942), a partner in the trading firm of Wattie & Co, and his American wife, Rosalind Bassett (d1926). The family was well-off, and travelled widely, and Welch had visited Korea, Canada, Switzerland and England by the age of ten. Welch's education was somewhat erratic. Initially this was at the hands of a governess. Then at the age of eight he was sent to a school for British children in Shanghai, unlike his brothers who had been packed off to prep schools in England. The next year, following a trip to England, he was sent to a Christian Scientist school in London, and at the age of eleven was sent to St Michaels, Uckfield, Sussex. Three years later he was sent to Repton, at which he was desperately unhappy and from which, at the age of sixteen, he ran away, taking himself to see Salisbury and Exeter cathedrals. Leaving Repton he determined to become an artist, and entered Goldsmiths School of Art in 1933.
On Sunday 9 June 1935 he was knocked off his bicycle on the London to Reigate road. Amongst his several injuries was a fractured spine. He was taken to Greenwich Hospital, and after 4 months to Southcourt Nursing Home at Broadstairs. During this time of having to learn to walk again, and having to cope as an invalid, he made a final break with Christian Science. He also continued painting and writing. Towards the end of 1939 he sold his first painting to the oil company Shell, and wrote an autobiographical novel, which was published in 1942 as Maiden Voyage . He also began writing the journal which he continued almost to the end of his life. In 1944 his second novel, In Youth is Pleasure , appeared, and Denton began living with Eric Oliver, the man with whom he spent the remaining four years of his life. He died at home in Kent on 30 December 1948.
From the guide to the Papers of Denton Welch, 20th century, 20th century, (University of Exeter)
