C. S. Forester

Cecil Louis Troughton Smith , known by his pen name Cecil Scott C. S. Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare such as the 12book Horatio Hornblower series, depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic wars. Two of the Hornblower books, A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours, were jointly awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1938. His other works include The African Queen .

Forester was born in Cairo and, after a family breakup at an early age, moved with his mother to London, where he was educated at Alleyns School and Dulwich College, south London. At Alleyns he may have been a contemporary of E.S. Hornblower, who died on active service with the Canadian Infantry in 1917. It is possible that as Cecil L. T. Smith and an Old Boy he would have been present at the unveiling of the War Memorial panels which are still on display where he would have read the name Hornblower. He began to study medicine at Guys Hospital, London, but left without completing his degree. Forester had always worn glasses and been thin. Trying to enlist in the army, he failed his physical and was told there was not a chance that he would be accepted, even though he was of good height and somewhat athletic. Around 1921, after leaving Guys, he began writing seriously using his pen name.

Source: Wikipedia