Arthur Swinson
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Arthur Horace Swinson (1915–1970) was a
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
officer, writer, playwright, and
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...
. A prolific playwright, he authored more than 300 works. Swinson was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, to Hugh Swinson and Lilla Fisher Swinson. He attended St Albans School. He enlisted in the Rifle Brigade in 1939 and in 1940 was commissioned into the
Worcestershire Regiment The Worcestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment in the British Army, formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot and the 36th (Herefordshire) Regiment of Foot. The regiment f ...
. In the Far East, he fought at the 1944
Battle of Kohima The Battle of Kohima proved the turning point of the Japanese U-Go offensive into India in 1944 during the Second World War. The battle took place in three stages from 4 April to 22 June 1944 around the town of Kohima, now the capital city of N ...
as a staff captain with the British 5th Brigade, which commanded the 7th Battalion of his regiment. The diaries he kept during the battle are now lodged in the Imperial War Museum. He served until 1946, with postings in Malaya,
Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
,
Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...
and
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. In 1949, he subsequently became a writer and producer at the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
where he produced a number of programmes for Richard Attenborough. In 1965, Swinson wrote a book about the
Jallianwala Bagh massacre The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large peaceful crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, to protest against the Rowlatt Act and arrest of pro-independenc ...
entitled ''Six Minutes to Sunset: The Story of General Dyer and the Amritsar Affair'' which aimed to justify
Reginald Dyer Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, CB (9 October 1864 – 23 July 1927) was an officer of the Bengal Army and later the newly constituted British Indian Army. His military career began serving briefly in the regular British Army before tra ...
's actions, claiming they were influenced by a fear of an invasion from Afghanistan and a desire to protect European women. In 1966, Swinson wrote and published "Kohima," an account of the
Battle of Kohima The Battle of Kohima proved the turning point of the Japanese U-Go offensive into India in 1944 during the Second World War. The battle took place in three stages from 4 April to 22 June 1944 around the town of Kohima, now the capital city of N ...
which was fought from April to June 1944 and in which he was a participant. The preface states that Field Marshal William Slim directed Swinson to ensure that Kohima and Imphal are described as twin battles fought under Slim's 14th Army. This Swinson does. Ultimately, however, the book focuses on the experience of the British 2nd Infantry Division. The book is a good adjunct to Slim's "Defeat into Victory" and Masters' "Road Past Mandalay." Swinson was the author of ''Scotch on the Rocks'' (1963 and 2005), which told the true story of the wartime wreck of the SS ''Politician'', on which
Compton Mackenzie Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, (17 January 1883 – 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong Scottish nationalist. He was one of th ...
's novel '' Whisky Galore'' (1947) – and the
Ealing Comedy The Ealing comedies is an informal name for a series of comedy films produced by the London-based Ealing Studios during a ten-year period from 1947 to 1957. Often considered to reflect Britain's post-war spirit, the most celebrated films in the ...
of the same title – were based. He died in Spain while on vacation, aged 55. He was survived by his wife, Joyce Budgen, and their three children.


References


Bibliography

* ''Six Minutes to Sunset''. Peter Davies 1964 * ''Writing for Television Today''. A & C Black 1965 * ''Sergeant Corks Casebook''. Arrow 1965 * ''Casebook of Medical Detection''. Peter Davies 1965 * ''North-West Frontier''. Frederick A. Praeger, New York/Washington 1967 * ''Siege of Saragoda''. Corgi Books * ''The Raiders: Desert Strike Force''. 1968; Ballantine 1972 * ''The Great Air Race''. Cassell 1968 * ''Four Samurai : A Quartet of Japanese Army Commanders in the Second World War''. Hutchinson 1968 * ''Commanders in the Second World War''. Hutchinson 1968 * ''The Memoirs of Private Waterfield''. Cassell 1968 (with Donald Scott) * ''Defeat in Malaya – the Fall of Singapore''. Ballantine, New York 1970 * ''Scotch on the Rocks''. Reprinted Luath Press 2005 * ''The Temple''. Michael Joseph 1970 * ''Defeat in Malaya: The Fall of Singapore''. Ballantine 1970 * ''Frederick Sander: The Orchid King''. Hodder & Stoughton 1970 * ''Beyond the Frontiers: The Biography of Colonel F. M. Bailey, Explorer and Special Agent''. Hutchinson 1971 * ''A Register of the Regiments and Corps of the British Army''. Archive Press 1972 * ''Wingate in Peace and War an account of the Chindit Commander''. MacDonald 1972 * ''Mountbatten''. Pan/Ballantine 1973 * ''Guadalcanal: Island Ordeal''. Ballantine 1973 1915 births 1970 deaths English historians British Army personnel of World War II Worcestershire Regiment officers English dramatists and playwrights People from St Albans Rifle Brigade soldiers English male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English male writers Military personnel from Hertfordshire {{England-writer-stub