John Donaldson

John Donaldson (1921?–1989), also known as Jon Inglis, was a British author and poet most particularly associated in later life with Oxford, England. Life Jon Inglis was born into poverty in Newcastle, probably in 1920–21, and was sent to an orphanage at the age of five when his mother who neglected the children in favour of living a life of a single women and alcohol dependent, could no longer cope with the children and his disabled sibling and abandoned them. At the Barnardo's orphanage, he experienced cold, hunger and abuse, he ran away to become the challenger in a mobile boxing booth. He joined the Pioneer Corps at outbreak of World War II and was captured by the Germans during the retreat to Dunkirk; in consequence he spent the whole war in prison camps. Escaping many times only to be caught again and returned to solitary confinement where he began writing poetry. He later novelised his early life under the title Forever Endeavour.