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A new project to raise the profile of the man dubbed the First World War’s greatest playwright is being put together, thanks to nearly £57,000 worth of funding.

Robert Cedric (RC) Sherriff, an insurance man turned screenwriter from Esher, made it big in Hollywood, penning such classics as The Dambusters (1955) and Goodbye Mr Chips (1939).

He wrote numerous plays and scripts but is perhaps best remembered for Journey’s End (1928), set in a British dugout on the eve of the great German offensive of March 1918, and written from his own experiences in the trenches.

A grand total of £56,900 has now been made available to the Surrey History Centre to catalogue and record the writer’s papers and documents.

The money, from the Heritage Lottery Fund, will pay for the project – To Journey’s End and Beyond: The Life and Legacy of RC Sherriff – which is due to start in the new year.

Staff at the centre in Goldsworth Road, Woking, will take on volunteers for the project and work closely with the RC Sherriff Trust in Walton, Kingston Gram-mar School, where he was educated, and schools in Elmbridge.

The idea is to bring Mr Sherriff’s experiences on the Western Front to a wider audience, through a newly commissioned play and dramatic workshops.

The volunteers will have an opportunity to pick up archive, conservation and packaging skills while making the records accessible to the public.

As a junior officer in the East Surrey Regiment, Sherriff spent four gruelling months on the Western Front until he was wounded at Passchendaele in August 1917. His papers contain hundreds of letters to his parents and friends.

Di Stiff, from the Surrey History Centre, applied for the grant along with county archivist Mike Page.

She said: “Because of the centenary of the First World War next year there’s a renewed interest in him and how he came to write Journey’s End.

“He was a serving officer in the East Surrey Regiment. We know about his experiences from his letters from the trenches. These led him to write it.

“These documents were then given to Kingston Grammar School and the centenary is an opportunity to get these papers properly categorised.

“He suffered from neuralgia and wrote about his nerves being shattered by the constant bombardment. He was invalided by 52 pieces of shrapnel, which is when he was taken out of the trenches. These experiences are captured in letters home to his mother and father, and family and friends.”

There will be a travelling exhibition in Surrey and all the material will be available online.

Stuart McLeod, head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South East, said: “This impressive collection of RC Sherriff’s works, once restored and catalogued, will give people an incredible insight into his life and his experiences of fighting on the Western Front.

“Capturing individual stories, such as his will, form an important strand of the First World War commemorations taking place across the country.”

Loretta Howells, director of the RC Sherriff Trust, said: It’s very exciting. It’s the first time there will be a a chance to see the massive collection the Surrey History Centre has.”