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| Ralph Richard Armstrong was born on the 18th June, 1903 in the small village of Walbottle. At that time Walbottle was in Northumberland but later was incorporated into the city of Newcastle. Armstrong's father was the local blacksmith and few at Walbottle Primary School could have suspected the strange direction that his life would take. |
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| At the age of 14 he started work in a local foundry and engineering works as a labourer. He moved to be an apprentice and was finally employed as a crane driver . At the end of the First World War Armstrong suddenly opted for a life at sea and joined the Merchant Navy. Again he worked his way up to to being a radio operator and served in many ships between 1920 and 1937. Between 1937-54 he also worked as a typist, a secretary, an architect's assistant and an undertaker's labourer. |
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| His first book was "The Mystery of Obadiah" in 1942, but his greatest success was "Sea Change" which won the prestigious Carnegie Medal in 1949. Armstrong lived the latter years of his life in Somerset and died in 1986 after producing over 22 books for children. He also wrote under the pseudonym Cam Renton, the name he had assigned to his hero in "Sea Change". |
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