Robert Cedric Sherriff (6 June 1896 – 13 November 1975) was an English playwright and scriptwriter, best known for his play Journey's End.
Sherriff was born in Hampton Wick, Middlesex. He was the only child of Herbert Hankin Sherriff, insurance clerk, and his wife, Constance, daughter of Charles Winder, of Iver, Buckinghamshire. Educated at Kingston Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames, he worked in an insurance office as a clerk (from 1914) and as an insurance adjuster (1918 to 1928) at Sun Insurance Company, London. Sherriff served (1915 to 1918) as a captain in the 9th East Surrey Regiment in World War I, serving at Vimy and Loos. He was severely wounded at Passchendaele near Ypres in 1917. He was decorated with an MC during the war.
He first wrote a play to help Kingston Rowing Club raise money to buy a new boat. His seventh play, Journey's End, was written in 1928 and published in 1929 and was based on his experiences in the war. It was performed twice, first on 9 December 1928, by the Incorporated Stage Society at the Apollo Theatre, directed by James Whale and with the 21 year old Laurence Olivier in the lead role. In the audience was Maurice Browne who produced it at the Savoy Theatre where it was performed for two years from 1929.
Sherriff studied at New College, Oxford from 1931 to 1934. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Society of Antiquaries.
Sherriff was nominated along with Eric Maschwitz and Claudine West for an Academy award for writing an adapted screenplay for Goodbye, Mr. Chips which was released in 1939. His 1955 screenplays, The Dam Busters and The Night My Number Came Up were nominated for best British screenplay BAFTA awards.
Sherriff's No Leading Lady: An Autobiography was first published in 1968.
