Edward Ricardo Braithwaite was born on June 27, 1912, in Georgetown, Guyana, and died on December 12, 2016.

He was publishing as E. R. Braithwaite.

He was a Guyanese-born United States novelist, writer, teacher, and diplomat

He was best known for his stories of social conditions and racial discrimination against black people.

Braithwaite was the author of the 1959 autobiographical novel To Sir, With Love which was made into a 1967 British drama film of the same title, starring Sidney Poitier and Lulu.

Braithwaite had a privileged beginning in life; both of his parents went to Oxford University and he describes growing up with education, achievement, and parental pride surrounding him.

Braithwaite’s father was a gold and diamond miner and his mother was a homemaker.

Braithwaite attended Queen’s College, Guyana, and then the City College of New York (1940).

In World War II, he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot – he would later describe this experience as one where he had felt no discrimination based on his skin colour or ethnicity.

Braithwaite went on to attend the University of Cambridge (1949), from which he earned a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in physics.

E. R. Braithwaite passed away at 104 years old.