William Arthur Dunkerley was an English journalist, author, and poet who died on January 23, 1941. He was born in Manchester and spent a short time in the United States after his marriage before relocating to Ealing, West London, where he worked as a deacon and teacher at the Ealing Congregational Church beginning in the 1880s. In 1922, he went to Worthing, Sussex, and was elected mayor. Dunkerley published poetry, hymns, and novels under his own name as well as as John Oxenham. His poetry includes the best-selling Bees in Amber: A Little Book of Thoughtful Verse (1913). He also penned "Greatheart" as a poem. In War and Peace: Songs of a Scotswoman, she wrote the foreword and evaluated the poetry of Mary H. J. Henderson, the administrator of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service. For journalism, he used the pen name Julian Ross. His novel A Mystery of the Underground (1897) is significant for being both an early serial killer murder narrative and a very early crime story set on the London Underground (District Line). The District Railway complained that it was "too realistic," and it is alleged that it resulted in fewer passengers on Tuesdays (the murderer always strikes on a Tuesday) while it was serialized.
