Major Francis Charles Claydon Yeats-Brown, DFC (15 August 1886 – 19 December 1944) was an officer in the British Indian army and the author of the memoir '' The Lives of a Bengal Lancer'', for which he was awarded the 1930

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

. His admiration and advocacy of Italian

Fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

cost him his role as editor of the ''

Everyman The everyman is a stock character of fiction. An ordinary and humble character, the everyman is generally a protagonist whose benign conduct fosters the audience's identification with them. Origin The term ''everyman'' was used as early as ...

'' paper in 1933.

Life and career

Yeats-Brown was born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

in 1886, the son of the British consul

Montague Yeats-Brown Montague "Monty" Yeats-Brown CMG (2 August 1834 – 22 February 1921) was a 19th-century British diplomat in Genoa and Boston. Life Yeats-Brown was born on 2 August 1834 on Palmaria, and was christened on an American warship then in harbou ...

. He studied at Harrow and Sandhurst. When he was 20 he went to

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 ...

, where he was attached to the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

Bareilly Bareilly () is a city in Bareilly district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is among the largest metropolises in Western Uttar Pradesh and is the centre of the Bareilly division as well as the historical region of Rohilkhand. The city ...

in present-day

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. He was then transferred to the

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...

and sent to the perennially turbulent North West Frontier region. His time there engendered in him a sympathy for the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

point of view, and in later years he would support the creation of an independent

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. 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 ...

, Yeats-Brown saw action in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and in

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the F ...

, where he was a member of the

Royal Flying Corps "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colors = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = , decorations ...

. His acts of bravery gained him the DFC. In 1915, his plane, piloted by Thomas White, was damaged on landing on a sabotage mission outside Baghdad, and he spent the following two years as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

. That provided the material for his first book, ''Caught by the Turks'' (1919). Following a temporary commission in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, he returned to the Indian Army in August 1919. He retired from the army in 1924, and joined the staff of the ''

Spectator ''Spectator'' or ''The Spectator'' may refer to: *Spectator sport, a sport that is characterized by the presence of spectators, or watchers, at its matches *Audience Publications Canada * ''The Hamilton Spectator'', a Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, ...

'' magazine as assistant editor. He quit the post in 1928. ''The Lives of a Bengal Lancer'', Yeats-Brown's most famous book, was published in 1930. The book is a memoir of his time in India from 1905 to 1914, with an emphasis on

cantonment A cantonment (, , or ) is a military quarters. In Bangladesh, India and other parts of South Asia, a ''cantonment'' refers to a permanent military station (a term from the British India, colonial-era). In military of the United States, United Stat ...

life at and around Bareilly. An immediate hit with readers and critics, the book won the

James Tait Black Award The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

that year and was turned into a successful 1935 film of the same name, starring

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, quiet screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, a ...

. In 1936, he published ''Lancer at Large'', in which he showed an affinity for the principles of

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

. During the 1930s, Yeats-Brown also became involved in right-wing politics. He was a member of the

January Club The January Club was a discussion group founded in 1934 by Oswald Mosley to attract Establishment support for the movement known as the British Union of Fascists. The Club was under the effective control of Robert Forgan, working on behalf of the ...

and the

Right Club The Right Club was a small group of antisemitic and fascist sympathising renegades within the British establishment formed a few months before World War II by the Scottish Unionist MP Archibald Maule Ramsay. It was focused on opposition to war w ...

, and wrote newspaper articles in praise of

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

and

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

, asserting that Hitler had solved Germany's unemployment problem. He also wrote articles for ''

New Pioneer New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

'', a far-right journal controlled by

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and closely linked to the British People's Party. In 1937, Hitler told Yeats-Brown in person in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

that the film '' The Lives of a Bengal Lancer'' was one of his favourites and had made it compulsory for all SS members. In 1933, Yeats-Brown was appointed editor of the ''

''. However his enthusiastic advocacy of the cause of Fascism was "to the surprise of the Directors", and he was forced to resign within weeks. His pro-war book, ''Dogs of War'', sold poorly. When the

Second World War 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 opposin ...

broke out in 1939, Yeats-Brown took up a commission again. In 1943 and '44, he toured the camps of India and the battlefields of

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 ...

, gathering material for a book entitled ''Martial India''. He died in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in December 1944.

Selected works

* ''Caught by the Turks'' (1919). * '' The Lives of a Bengal Lancer'' (1930) * ''Golden Horn'' (1932) * ''Dogs of War'' (1934) * ''Lancer at Large'' (1936) * ''Yoga Explained'' (1937) * '' European Jungle'' (1939) * ''Indian Pageant'' (1942) * ''Martial India'' (1945)

Honours and awards

*10 October 1919 – Flying Officer Francis Charles Claydon Yeats-Brown of the Royal Air Force is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in recognition of distinguished services rendered during the war.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeats-Brown, Francis 1886 births 1944 deaths Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) British writers People educated at Harrow School Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst British Indian Army officers King's Royal Rifle Corps officers British Army personnel of World War I Royal Flying Corps officers World War I prisoners of war held by the Ottoman Empire British World War I prisoners of war Royal Air Force officers James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients British fascists