September 17, 1965

John Davy Hayward, (February 2, 1905 to September 17, 1965), was a literary scholar, who came from a prosperous family of medical professionals. According to his Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article: After Cambridge, Hayward lost little time in establishing an independent existence in London and, his wheelchair notwithstanding, pursuing with energy and success the life of a freelance literary man.

Hayward published authoritative editions of various English poets, from Wilmot to T. S. Eliot, and a number of anthologies. He also was, not just a collector of books, but edited the Book Collector, which became the standard magazine for collectors in the English speaking world, after Ian Fleming founded that periodical. Hayward received a CBE in 1953.

Hayward's London flat, at "19 Carlyle Mansions, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, his home from March 1946 until his death, " was the center of a literary salon of European renown. 

 Hayward had known T. S. Eliot since 1925. The first ten years Hayward lived at Carlyle Mansions, he and Eliot were flat mates. 

But before then, their friendship may be gauged by the fact Eliot dedicated Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) to several folks, including, at the end of the dedicatory lines, "The Man in White Spats." That man was John Hayward.