William Douglas-Home

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William Douglas-Home (June 3, 1912- September 28, 1992) was a British writer and dramatist.

From an aristocratic family, he was the son of the 13th Earl of Home and his oldest brother was Prime Minister and 14th Earl Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

Douglas-Home was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford where he read history. His first play, Murder in Pupil Room, was performed by his classmates at Eton in 1926 when he was only fourteen.

He served as an officer in the Second World War. He landed in Normandy in 1944 but, when ordered to do so, refused to bomb Le Havre on moral grounds, fearing civilian casualties in the heavily populated town. For refusing to obey orders, he was stripped of his rank and sentenced to one year of hard labour. This experience inspired him into writing a play in 1947, Now Barabbas.

William Douglas-Home wrote roughly 50 plays, most of them comedies in an upper-class setting.

In 1951, he married the equally aristocratic Hon. Rachel Brand (who later inherited the barony of Dacre) and had four children. They enjoyed a truly happy marriage.

Douglas-Home's play The Reluctant Debutante has been adapted twice into film. The first movie, made in 1958, retained the same title and featured Rex Harrison and Sandra Dee with a screenplay by the playwright himself. The second was released in 2003, starred Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, and Kelly Preston, and was called What a Girl Wants. Interestingly, the latter film features a hereditary peer in the House of Lords who disclaims his title in order to stand for election to the House of Commons. Douglas-Home's brother was one of the first to do that after the enacting of the Peerage Act 1963. Douglas-Home was a prolific playwright, but his works have neither the depth nor the durability of such near contemporaries as Terence Rattigan or Noel Coward.