Aubrey Hopwood

Aubrey Hopwood (4 April 1863 – 25 October 1917) was a British lyricist of Edwardian musical comedy and a novelist and author of nonsense books for children. He co-wrote the lyrics for the musicals Alice in Wonderland (1886), A Runaway Girl (1898) and The Lucky Star (1899), among others. Early life Born Henry Aubrey Hopwood in Edinburgh in 1863, he was the second son and one of nine children of Mary Augusta Henrietta Coventry, (born 1841, the granddaughter of George Coventry, 8th Earl of Coventry, and John Turner Hopwood (1829‒1900), then Member of Parliament for Clitheroe in Lancashire. He attended Cheam School and Charterhouse. His younger brother was Rear Admiral Ronald Arthur Hopwood (1868‒1949), referred to as the "Poet Laureate" of the Royal Navy by Time magazine. Career After a short period in which he served as a Lieutenant in the Northamptonshire Regiment, in 1884 he travelled to Orange County in Florida with his older brother, Robert Coventry De Vere Hopwood (1859‒1911), returning to the United States in 1886 and 1888. In 1886 he co-wrote the lyrics with Henry Savile Clarke for the musical Alice in Wonderland under the guidance of the author of the source novels, Lewis Carroll. Hopwood was the Secretary of Arthur's, a gentlemen's club in London (1893–1907), and in 1897 he wrote the romantic adventure novel Down by the Suwanee River.