30. My Man Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

My Man Jeeves (1919) was Wodehouse’s first Jeeves title (Jeeves’ first appearance was in the short story ‘Extricating Young Gussie’ in 1915). The name came from the world of cricket. Percy Jeeves was, by all accounts, a very useful player. An attacking right-hand bat, medium fast bowler, he played first-class cricket from 1912–14, and in 1913 Wodehouse, a keen cricket fan, saw him play at Cheltenham. Several decades later, RV Ryder, the son of the Warwickshire club secretary who had originally signed Percy Jeeves, wrote to Wodehouse to ask for confirmation that the Jeeves of literature really was named after the Jeeves of cricket. Wodehouse replied:

Dear Mr Ryder.
Yes, you are quite right.
It must have been in 1913 that I paid a visit to my parents in Cheltenham and went to see Warwickshire play Glos on the Cheltenham College ground. I suppose Jeeves’s bowling must have impressed me, for I remembered him in 1916 [actually 1915, see above – ed.], when I was in New York and just starting the Jeeves and Bertie saga, and it was just the name I wanted.
I have always thought till lately that he was playing for Gloucestershire that day. (I remember admiring his action very much)
Yours sincerely,
PG Wodehouse.

Percy Jeeves went on to even greater distinction in the 1914 season, and was tipped by England captain Plum Warner as a future England player.

On August 4 1914, however, Britain declared war on Germany, and Jeeves signed up with the 15th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. In July the following year he was in the thick of the fighting in the battle of the Somme. The 15th battalion was ordered to make an attack on High Wood, a forested area on the crest of a hill near the village of Bazentin le Petit in the Somme département. High Wood was a crucial part of the German line, and heavily defended with machine-gun emplacements able to rake down the slopes at every approach. The ground between the British trenches and the hilltop was open, unforested and strewn with dead bodies from previous actions. On the night of July 22/23 the order was given for a major assault, in which the 15th battalion was a small component. The assault made no headway whatever. Jeeves’ body was never found. It was only in September 1915 that High Wood was captured, after the loss of around 6,000 men.

September 1915 was also, coincidentally, the month of the appearance of the first Jeeves story. Jeeves never got to play for his country, but did die for it.

Consulted:
Donaldson, Frances: PG Wodehouse (Futura, 1982)
Usborne, Richard: Wodehouse at Work to the End (Penguin, 1976)
http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/15666.html

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