Essential chronology of Mason's life
1865
Alfred Edward Woodley Mason is born on 7th May in Camberwell, the third son of Elizabeth and William Woodley Mason.
1878
Mason enters Dulwich College.
1880 or 1881
He spends his first holiday in the Alps.
1884
Mason enters Trinity College, Oxford. T.
1888
He takes his BA from Oxford and becomes an actor in the Compton Comedy Company.
1894
Mason goes to London with the intention of becoming a playwright.
1895
His first novel A Romance of Wastdale is published by Elkin Mathews.
1898
He meets J.M. Barrie.
1902
Mason’s most famous work, The Four Feathers, is published in October by Smith, Elders & Co.
1906
He is elected MP for the Liberals.
1907
Mason publishes Running Water with Hodder and Stoughton.
1910
The first of the Inspector Hanaud’s detective stories, At the Villa Rose, is published by Hodder & Stoughton
1914
He enlists in the Manchester Regiment of Infantry and is made Captain.
1915-1918
He serves as agent for the newly constituted Secret Service Department.
1935
Mason writes Sir George Alexander and the St. James’ Theatre.
1937
He is offered a knighthood but refuses.
1938
The film The Drum, produced by Alexander Korda and written and adapted for the screen by Mason, is premiered in April.
1941
Mason publishes Sir Francis Drake, a biography of the great Elizabethan seaman.
1948
Mason dies in his house in London on the 22nd November at the age of 83.