Robert Egerton Swartwout (July 2, 1905 – June 2, 1951) was an American-born
English cartoonist, coxswain, and writer, including poet.
He was the only son of American architect Egerton Swartwout and British-born Geraldine Davenport Swartwout. He drew from his rowing experience to produce a locked-room mystery about The Boat Race and many poems.
Swartwout was also a member and debater with the Cambridge Union Society. Under the pen name R. E. Swartwout, he contributed to Granta and Punch, as well as crosswords for The Spectator. He wrote a short Holmesian piece entitled "The Omnibus Murder" and wrote four books:[5]
Rhymes of the River and other verses, by R. E. Swartwout, W. Heffer and Sons Limited, Cambridge, 1927
The Monastic Craftsman: An Inquiry into the Services of Monks to Art in Britain and in Europe North of the Alps in the Middle Ages, by R. E. Swartwout, M.Litt. of Trinity College, Cambridge, Cambridge, W. Heffer and Sons Ltd, 1932
The Boat Race Murder, by R. E. Swartwout, Grayson and Grayson Ltd., Curzon Street, Mayfair, London, 1933. This book from the Cambridge Crime series has been reissued by Ostara Publishing.[6]
It Might Have Happened. A sketch of the later career of Rupert Lister Audenard, First Earl of Slype, etc. [A political fantasy based on the imaginary extension of the life of Lord Randolph Churchill], by R. Egerton Swartwout, W. Heffer and Sons Cambridge, 1934
In 1931, Swartwout wrote the introduction to Sir William Schwenck Gilbert: A Topsy Turvy Adventure, by Townley Searle, London: Alexander-Ouseley, Ltd., 1931.
Swartwout died unmarried in Hartismere Hospital, Eye, Suffolk, England on June 6, 1951, of esophageal cancer complicated by pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 45.[8]
^Certificate of Naturalization, Home Office No. 655,665, certificate number AZ 2941
^Certified copy of entry of death, Hartismere in the county of Suffolk, subdistrict of Eye and Stradbroke, 1951, DYD 205600, application number 3828567-1
