D. M. Gill

I believe the D. M. Gill writing for The Children's Newspaper was Doris Muriel Gill, a writer on pioneers of history and religion.

There seems to be some confusion over her output as some libraries list some of the same books as being the work of Doris Mary Gill. I've gathered all the works from both names in the publications list below as, although stranger things have happened, in this instance I suspect there has been an error in records that has been carried from one library to another, especially as Doris Muriel and Doris Mary are given the same year of birth, 1904. (A Google search for "Doris Muriel Gill" and "Doris Mary Gill" only produces a smattering of books for sale.)

All very confusing. An admittedly fairly brief search of records turns up a Doris Muriel Gill of Wallasey, Cheshire, who died in late 1969 and left a fairly substantial amount in her will to the Jubilee Research Fellowship, Royal Holloway College, London University. But she was born 10 October 1894, not 1904. It's not unusual to discover that accepted years of birth are often wrong when you check them. Curiously, while actresses are considered past it once they get to a certain age and tend to shave off a few years to extend their careers, authors, bizarrely, face the similar problem of being considered out of touch with the audience if they're in their sixties and writing for a predominantly youthful audience. It may sound odd but I've come across instances of this in the past. There's also a certain vanity about age as anyone who has looked at a census will be able to tell you: it's not unusual for someone to only age 3 or 5 years between census records, which are taken 10 years apart.

Until I can discover where the 1904 year of birth information came from (so I can take a stab at guessing how safe the information is), I'll be cautious and say that Doris Muriel Gill (1894-1969) is only a tentative i.d. of our author.

Non-fiction
Great Men of History. London, G. G. Harrap, 1929.
People of the Light. London, Edinburgh House Press, 1933.
Junior Tales. The Harvest of the Spirit, with Lilian E. Cox. London, National Sunday School Union, 1934.
The "Pioneer" History Series. London, Sir I. Pitman & Sons, 4 vols., 1935.
__1 Pioneers of Home Making.
__2 Pioneers of Greece and Rome.
__3 The Pioneers of Britain and Europe.
__4 Pioneers of World-Wide Changes.
Victories of Peace. Stories of friendship in action. London, Student Christian Movement Press, 1935.
Methods of Teaching for Sunday Schools of To-day, with A. M. Pullen. London, National Sunday School Union, 1936.
Stories on the Lord's Prayer, with A. M. Pullen. London, National Sunday School Union, 1937.
Adventures of Service: Stories of Modern Pioneers, with A. M. Pullen. London, SCM Press, 1938.
Where There's a Will. Stories of man's use of God's gifts, with A. M. Pullen. London, National Sunday School Union, 1941.
Makers of History. London & Edinburgh, McDougall's Educational Co., 1943.

Plays
The Cup. An Easter play in three acts. London, A. J. G. Seaton, 1931.
Earnest-Money. A one-act play. London, H. V. Capsey, 1938.

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