“Sapper” was the pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile (he also published a few works as “H.C. McNeile”). However, it is as “Sapper” that he remains most famous. As “Sapper” he published his Captain Hugh “Bull-Dog” Drummond serie fs of action-adventure mysteries, which brought him worldwide fame. Hugh Drummond appeared on the radio, in motion pictures, and in comics for decades, and the series proved so popular that other authors continued it after McNeile’s death.
McNeile (1888-1937) was born in Bodmin, Cornwall. He was the son of Malcolm McNeile, a captain in the Royal Navy who, at the time, was governor of the naval prison at Bodmin, and Christiana Mary (née Sloggett). The McNeile family had ancestral roots from both Belfast and Scotland and counted a general in the British Indian Army amo
