Invariably known as Captain W.E. Johns, William Earl Johns was born in Bengeo, Hertfordshire, England. He was the son of Richard Eastman Johns, a tailor, and Elizabeth Johns (née Earl), the daughter of a master butcher. He had a younger brother, Russell Ernest Johns, who was born on 24 October 1895. He went to Hertford Grammar School where he was no great scholar but he did develop into a crack shot with a rifle. This fired his early ambition to be a soldier. He also attended evening classes at the local art school. In the summer of 1907 he was apprenticed to a county municipal surveyor where he remained for four years and then in 1912 he became a sanitary inspector in Swaffham, Norfolk. Soon after taking up this appointment, his father died of tuberculosis at the age of 47. On 6 October 1914 he married Maude Penelope Hunt (1882–1961), the daughter of the Reverend John Hunt, the vicar at Little Dunham in Norfolk. The couple had one son, William Earl Carmichael Johns, who was born in March 1916. With war looming he joined the Territorial Army as a Private in the King's Own Royal Regiment (Norfolk Yeomanry), a cavalry regiment. In August 1914 his regiment was mobilised and was in training and on home defence duties until September 1915 when they received embarkation orders for duty overseas. He fought at Gallipoli and in the Suez Canal area and, after moving to the Machine gun Corps, he took part in the spring offensive in Salonika in April 1917. He contracted malaria and whilst in hospital he put in for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and on 26 September 1917, he was given a temporary commission as a Second Lieutenant and posted back to England to learn to fly, which he did at No. 1 School of Aeronautics at Reading, where he was taught by a Captain Ashton. He was posted to No. 25 Flying Training School at Thetford where he had a charmed existence, once writing off three planes in three days. He moved to Yorkshire and was then posted to France and while on a bombing raid to Mannheim his plane was shot down and he was wounded. Captured by the Germans, he later escaped before being reincarcerated where he remained until the war ended.
Series
Books
Biggles on the home front
1957
Best of Biggles
1985
Biggles WWII Collection
Contains: Biggles Defies the Swastika, Biggles Delivers the Goods, Biggles Defends the Desert & Biggles Fails to Return
2012
Biggles Goes To War
1938
Biggles in the South Seas
1940
Biggles Sets a Trap
1962
Biggles and the Lost Sovereigns
1964
No Rest for Biggles
1956
Worrals Carries On
1943
Biggles' Combined Operation
1959
Biggles and the Gun Runners
1966
Biggles Learns To Fly
1935
Biggles Flying Detective
1994
Biggles Flies West
1937
Biggles Works It Out
1951
Biggles Sees Too Much
1970
Biggles Does Some Homework
1998
Biggles sorts it out
1967
Worlds of Wonder
1962
Biggles In Spain
1939
Biggles Takes a Hand
1963
Gimlet Lends a Hand
1949
Biggles and the Blue Moon
1965
Kings of Space
1954
Biggles In France
1935
Another Job for Biggles
1951
Biggles Goes Home
1960
Biggles and the Cruise of the Condor
1933
Biggles Follows On
1952
Biggles in Mexico
1959
Biggles i Söderhavet, Biggles i djungeln
2025
Biggles and the Missing MIllionaire
1961
Biggles Forms a Syndicate
1961
Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter
1954
Biggles In The Orient
1945
Gimlet Mops Up
1947
Gimlet Bores In
1950
Biggles - Secret Agent
1940
Biggles Air Detective
1952
Biggles Takes it Rough
1963
Biggles in Africa
1936
Biggles Charter Pilot
1943
Biggles and the Secret Mission
1937
Biggles in Australia
1955
Biggles in the Baltic
1940
Biggles in Borneo
1943
Biggles and the Noble Lord
1969
Biggles and the Black Mask
1964
Return to Mars
1955
Biggles
2001
Biggles' Special Case
1963
Biggles defies the Swastika
1941
Worrals Flies Again
1942
Biggles and the Black Peril
1935
Biggles and Co.
1936
Biggles in the Gobi
1953
Biggles of the Camel Squadron
1934
Biggles Makes Ends Meet
1957
Biggles Takes Charge
1956
Biggles of 266
1955
Biggles at World's End
1959
Biggles in the Terai
1966
Biggles Air Ace
1999
Biggles Foreign Legionnaire
1954
Biggles and the Deep Blue Sea
1968
Biggles - Air Commodore
1937
Biggles in the Blue
1953
Gimlet Gets the Answer
1952
The Boy Biggles
1968
Biggles Fails To Return
1943
Biggles Presses On
1958
Biggles' Secret Assignments
2009
Biggles Scores a Bull
1952
BIGGLES SPITFIRE PARADE
1941
Biggles Looks Back
1965
Biggles of the Special Air Police
1953
Biggles and the Plot that Failed
1965
Gimlet Comes Home
1946
Biggles Takes the Case
1952
Biggles Flies North
1939
Biggles on Mystery Island
1958
Sergeant Bigglesworth, C.I.D.
1947
Biggles Sees it Through
1941
The Man Who Vanished into Space
1963
Gimlet Goes Again
1944
Biggles Flies to Work
1963
Biggles and the Poor Rich Boy
1961
Biggles Sweeps the Desert
1942
Biggles in the Underworld
1968
Biggles in the Jungle
1942
Biggles and the Plane that Disappeared
1963
Biggles Defends The Desert
1993
Biggles & the Pirate Treasure
1954
The Biggles Book of Treasure Hunting
1962
Gimlet off the Map
1951
Biggles of the Interpol
1957
Biggles Cuts it Fine
1954
King of the Commandos
1943
Orchids for Biggles
1962
Now to the Stars
1956
Biggles The Camels Are Coming
1932
To Outer Space
1957
The Edge of Beyond
1958
Biggles Investigates
1964
Biggles and the Black Raider
1953
Biggles and the Leopards of Zinn
1960
Biggles Buries a Hatchet
1958
Biggles' Second Case
1948
Biggles Flies Again
1934
Biggles Chinese Puzzle Kgt
1955
Biggles Breaks the Silence
1949
Biggles Flies East
1935
Gimlet's Oriental Quest
1948
Biggles of the Royal Flying Corps
1978
Biggles Takes a Holiday
1949
Biggles Gets His Men
1950
The Quest for the Perfect Planet
1961
Biggles and the Dark Intruder
1967
Biggles Goes to School
1951
