Lives of the First World War

Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois to parents Maurice Chandler a railway enginer from Pittsburgh and Florance Fitt from Waterford Ireland. After Chandler's family were abandoned by his alcoholic father, his mother returned briefly to Waterford in Ireland and then to South London where Chandler was classically educated at Dulwich College, In 1912, he returned to America, settling in Los Angeles in 1913 In 1917, when the US entered World War I, he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force because it paid an allowance to his dependent mother. He saw combat in the trenches in France with the Gordon Highlanders, becoming an NCO and platoon commander. In mid 1918 he was invalided back to England and underwent flight training in Lincolnshire with the fledgling Royal Air Force (RAF) when the war ended and he returned to the USA.

Side portrait in uniform