Alexander Raban "Alec" Waugh was a British novelist, born in London on the month of July, 1898. He was educated at Sherborne School; the result of his experiences was his first, semi-autobiographical novel, The Loom of Youth (1917), in which he dramatized his schooldays. The Loom of Youth was so controversial at the time for it mentioned homosexual relationships between boys, albeit in a very understated, staid fashion that Waugh remains the only former pupil to be dismissed from the former students society. He served in the army in France in the First World War, being commissioned in the Dorset Regiment in May 1917, and seeing action at Passchendaele. He later had a career as a successful author, although never as successful or innovative as his younger brother; nevertheless, his 1955 novel Island in the Sun was a best-seller. Waugh also merits a mention in the history of reggae music. The success of the movie adaptation of Island in the Sun and the Harry Belafonte title track provided inspiration as well as the name for the successful Island Records record label.