Harry Francis Prevost Battersby (18621949) most well known as H. F. P. Battersby was a poet, novelist

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and psychical researcher, who published under the name Francis Prevost.

Biography

Battersby was born in 1862, the son of a major-general. He graduated with distinction from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and initially joined the

Royal Irish Rifles The Royal Irish Rifles (became the Royal Ulster Rifles from 1 January 1921) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army, first created in 1881 by the amalgamation of the 83rd (County of Dublin) Regiment of Foot and the 86th (Royal County ...

before moving into journalism. He served as the

Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...

correspondent for the ''

Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...

''. In 1909, he married Frances Muriel Saunders. He saw active service again during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Works

Poems

*''Melilot'' (1886) *''Fires of Greenwood'' (1887)

Novels and short fiction

*''Rust of Gold'' (1895) *''The Avenging Hour'' (1896) *''False Dawn'' (1897) *''In The Web of War'' (1900) *''The Plague of the Heart'' (1902)

Plays

*''The Way of War'' (1902) *''Voice of Duty'' (1904)

Translator

*Tolstoi's ''Christ's Christianity and What to Do''

Parapsychology

*''Psychic Certainties'' (1930) *''Man Outside Himself'' (1942)

References

Prevost, Francis, in ''The Oxford Companion to Edwardian Fiction''Prevost, Francis, in ''The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction'' (ed. John Sutherland)
*A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin (John William Cousin), 1849–1910.

1862 births 1949 deaths British poets British war correspondents Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Parapsychologists Royal Ulster Rifles officers British male poets {{UK-writer-stub