A.E. Coppard born 1878 at Folkstone, Kent, the son of a tailor and a housemaid. Left school at the age of 9 to work as an errand boy for a Jewish trousers maker in Whitechapel during the period of the Ripper murders. There is no foundation for the rumor that he subsequently became a navvy and survived on raw cabbage; actually he worked as a clerk at Brighton and Oxford, and adopted professional sprinting as a hobby. At present, however, according to WHO'S WHO his recreation is 'resting.' ( )