| Robert Egerton Swartwout | |
| Birth Date: | 2 July 1905 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Eye, Suffolk, England |
| Relatives: | Egerton Swartwout (father) |
| Education: | Middlesex School Trinity College, Cambridge |
Robert Egerton Swartwout (July 2, 1905 – June 2, 1951) was an American-born writer, poet, cartoonist, and coxswain. He was the only son of American architect Egerton Swartwout and British-born Geraldine Davenport Swartwout. He drew from his rowing experience to produce a locked room mystery about The Boat Race and many poems.
Swartwout rowed and coxed for Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, from which he graduated on June 13, 1924.[1] While attending Trinity College, Cambridge, he became the first American to cox Cambridge University Boat Club to victory over Oxford in 1930.[2] Swartwout was 5' 6", weighed 105lb, and possessed a powerful bass voice.[3]
At Trinity College, Swartwout earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1928, followed by a master's degree in Literature in 1931. That same year he was president of the Cambridge University Liberal Club; his devotion to David Lloyd George was such that he later became, according to the historian Eric Hobsbawm, a Welsh nationalist.[4] Swartwout was also a member and debater with the Cambridge Union Society. Under the pen name R. E. Swartwout he contributed to Granta and Punch, as well as crosswords for The Spectator. He wrote a short Holmesian piece entitled "The Omnibus Murder" and wrote four books:[5]
In 1931 Swartwout wrote the introduction to Sir William Schwenck Gilbert: A Topsy Turvy Adventure, by Townley Searle, London: Alexander-Ouseley, Ltd., 1931.
Robert Swartwout became a British subject on June 9, 1933.[7]
Swartwout died unmarried in Hartismere Hospital, Eye, Suffolk, England on June 6, 1951, of esophageal cancer complicated by pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 45.[8]