Roald Dahl Wikipedia. Roald Dahl. Dahl in 1. Born1. 91. 6 0. September 1. Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, UKDied. November 1. 99. 01. Oxford, England, UKOccupation. Novelist, poet, screenwriter. Period. 19. 421. Genre. Childrens, adults literature, horror, mystery, fantasy. Spouse. Patricia Nealm. Felicity Ann dAbreu Croslandm. Children. 5, including Tessa, Ophelia, and Lucy Dahl. Relatives. Nicholas LogsdailnephewSophie DahlgranddaughterPhoebe DahlgranddaughterMilitary career. Allegiance United Kingdom. Servicebranch. British Army AugustNovember 1. Royal Air Force November 1. August 1. 94. 6Years of service. Rank. Squadron leader. Battleswars. World War IIWebsiteroalddahl. Roald Dahl English, This was known among the five boys as the Great Mouse Plot of 1. A favourite sweet among British schoolboys between the two World Wars, Dahl would later refer to gobstoppers in his literary creation, Everlasting Gobstopper. Thereafter, he transferred to a boarding school in England St Peters in Weston super Mare. Roalds parents had wanted him to be educated at an English public school and, because of a then regular ferry link across the Bristol Channel, this proved to be the nearest. His time at St Peters was an unpleasant experience for him. He was very homesick and wrote to his mother every week but never revealed to her his unhappiness. Only after her death in 1. In 2. 01. 6, to mark the centenary of Dahls birth, his letters to his mother were abridged and broadcast as BBC Radio 4s Book of the Week. Dahl wrote about his time at St Peters in his autobiography Boy Tales of Childhood. Repton School. From 1. Repton School in Derbyshire. Dahl had unhappy experiences of the school, describing an environment of ritual cruelty and acting as personal servants for older boys along with terrible beatings these violent experiences are described in Donald Sturrocks biography of Dahl. There are echoes of these darker experiences in Dahls writings and his hatred of cruelty and corporal punishment. According to Boy Tales of Childhood, a friend named Michael was viciously caned by headmaster Geoffrey Fisher, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury and went on to crown. Queen Elizabeth II in 1. However, according to Dahls biographer Jeremy Treglown,2. May 1. 93. 3, a year after Fisher had left Repton and the headmaster concerned was in fact J. T. Christie, Fishers successor. This caused Dahl to have doubts about religion and even about God. He was never seen as a particularly talented writer in his school years, with one of his English teachers writing in his school report I have never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended. Dahl was exceptionally tall, reaching 6 feet 6 inches 1. He played a number of sports, including cricket, football, golf and was made captain of the squash team. As well as having a passion for literature, he also developed an interest in photography1. The Full Scrat`S Continental Crack Up Movie. During his years at Repton, Cadbury, the chocolate company, would occasionally send boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils. Dahl would dream of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury himself and this proved the inspiration for him to write his third childrens book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1. Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, Dahl spent the majority of his summer holidays with his mothers family in Norway, and wrote about many happy memories from those expeditions in Boy Tales of Childhood, such as when he replaced the tobacco in his halfsisters fiancs pipe with goat droppings. He only experienced one unhappy memory of his holidays in Norway at around the age of eight, when his adenoids were removed by a doctor. His childhood and first job selling kerosene in Midsomer Norton and surrounding villages in Somerset are subjects in Boy Tales of Childhood. After school. After finishing his schooling, in August 1. Dahl crossed the Atlantic on the RMS Nova Scotia and hiked through Newfoundland with the Public Schools Exploring Society. In July 1. 93. 4, Dahl joined the Shell Petroleum Company. Following two years of training in the United Kingdom, he was transferred first to Mombasa, Kenya, then to Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika now Tanzania. Along with the only two other Shell employees in the entire territory, he lived in luxury in the Shell House outside Dar es Salaam, with a cook and personal servants. While out on assignments supplying oil to customers across Tanganyika, he encountered black mambas and lions, among other wildlife. Fighter ace. In August 1. World War II loomed, plans were made to round up the hundreds of Germans in Dar es Salaam. Dahl was made a lieutenant in the Kings African Rifles, commanding a platoon of Askaris, indigenous troops serving in the colonial army. In November 1. 93. Dahl joined the Royal Air Force RAF as an aircraftman with service number 7. After a 6. 00 mile 9. Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, he was accepted for flight training with 1. With seven hours and 4. De Havilland Tiger Moth, he flew solo 3.