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{{Short description|Officer in the British Indian army (1886–1944)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2008}}
{{Infobox military person
|honorific_prefix = [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)|DFC]]
|name = Francis Yeats-Brown
|image = FRANCIS YEATS-BROWN as a hungarian mechanic.jpg
|caption = Yeats-Brown as a "Hungarian Mechanic" in 1919
|birth_name = Francis Charles Claypon Yeats-Brown
|birth_date = {{birth date|1886|08|15}}
|birth_place = [[Genoa]], [[Kingdom of Italy]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1944|12|19|1886|08|10}}
|death_place = [[England]]
|allegiance ={{flag|United Kingdom}} [[Right Club|British Fascism]]
|branch = {{Army|United Kingdom}} {{Air force|United Kingdom}}
|branch_label =
|serviceyears =
|serviceyears_label =
|rank =
|rank_label =
|servicenumber =
|unit = [[King's Royal Rifle Corps]] [[Royal Flying Corps]] [[Royal Air Force]]
|commands =
|battles =
|battles_label =
|awards = [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)|DFC]]
|memorials =
|alma_mater = [[Harrow School]] [[Royal Military Academy Sandhurst]]
|spouse =
|children =
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|laterwork =
}}

'''Major Francis Charles Claypon Yeats-Brown''', [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)|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 (book)|The Lives of a Bengal Lancer]]'', for which he was awarded the 1930 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]].{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

His admiration and advocacy of Italian [[Fascism]] cost him his role as editor of the ''[[Everyman (magazine)|Everyman]]'' paper in 1933.

==Life and career==
Yeats-Brown was born in [[Genoa]] in 1886, the son of the British consul [[Montague Yeats-Brown]].<ref name=FYB>
{{cite book
|title=Francis Yeats-Brown
|last1=[[Evelyn Wrench]]
|first1=John
|publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode
|location=London
|date=1948
}}</ref> He studied at [[Harrow School|Harrow]] and [[Royal Military Academy Sandhurst|Sandhurst]]. When he was 20 he went to [[British Raj|India]], where he was attached to the [[King's Royal Rifle Corps]] at [[Bareilly]] in present-day [[Uttar Pradesh]]. He was then transferred to the [[cavalry]] and sent to the perennially turbulent [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–1955)|North West Frontier]] region. His time there engendered in him a sympathy for the [[Muslim]] point of view, and in later years he would support the creation of an independent [[Pakistan]].

During the [[World War I|First World War]], Yeats-Brown saw action in [[France]] and in [[Mesopotamia]], where he was a member of the [[Royal Flying Corps]]. His acts of bravery gained him the DFC. In 1915, his plane, piloted by [[Thomas White (Australian politician)|Thomas White]], was damaged on landing on a sabotage mission outside Baghdad, and he spent the following two years as a [[prisoner of war]]. That provided the material for his first book, ''Caught by the Turks'' (1919).

Following a temporary commission in the [[Royal Air Force]], he returned to the Indian Army in August 1919.<ref name="Gazette31825" /> He retired from the army in 1924,<ref name="Gazette32983" /> and joined the staff of the ''[[The Spectator|Spectator]]'' 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]] life at and around Bareilly. An immediate hit with readers and critics, the book won the [[James Tait Black Award]] that year and was turned into a successful [[The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (film)|1935 film of the same name]], starring [[Gary Cooper]]. In 1936, he published ''Lancer at Large'', in which he showed an affinity for the principles of [[yoga]].

During the 1930s, Yeats-Brown also became involved in right-wing politics. He was a member of the [[January Club]] and the [[Right Club]],<ref>[[Anna Wolkoff]]</ref> and wrote newspaper articles in praise of [[Francisco Franco]] and [[Hitler]], asserting that Hitler had solved Germany's unemployment problem. He also wrote articles for ''[[New Pioneer]]'', a far-right journal controlled by [[Gerard Wallop, 9th Earl of Portsmouth|Viscount Lymington]] and closely linked to the [[British People's Party (1939)|British People's Party]].<ref>[[Martin Pugh (author)|Martin Pugh]], ''Hurrah for the Blackshirts! Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars'', Pimlico, 2006, p. 279</ref> In 1937, Hitler told Yeats-Brown in person in [[Nuremberg]] that the film ''[[The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (film)|The Lives of a Bengal Lancer]]'' was one of his favourites and had made it compulsory for all [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] members.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/09/26/actualidad/1569534585_097014.html|title=De luna de miel en la Alemania nazi|last=Antón|first=Jacinto|date=2019-09-28|work=El País|access-date=2019-09-29|language=es|issn=1134-6582}}</ref>

In 1933, Yeats-Brown was appointed editor of the ''[[Everyman (magazine)|Everyman]]''. However his enthusiastic advocacy of the cause of Fascism was "to the surprise of the Directors",<ref name=FYB/>{{rp|172}} and he was forced to resign within weeks. His pro-war book, ''Dogs of War'', sold poorly.<ref name=FYB/>

When the [[Second World War]] 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]], gathering material for a book entitled ''Martial India''. He died in [[England]] in December 1944.

==Selected works==
* ''Caught by the Turks'' (1919).
* ''[[The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (book)|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)<ref name=MartialIndia>{{cite book
|last1=Yeats-Brown |first1=Francis
|title=Martial India |date=1945
|publisher=[[Eyre and Spottiswoode]]
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xa4DAAAAMAAJ}}
</ref>

==Honours and awards==
*10 October 1919 – Flying Officer Francis Charles Claydon Yeats-Brown of the Royal Air Force is awarded the [[Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)|Distinguished Flying Cross]] in recognition of distinguished services rendered during the war.<ref name="dfc" />

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="dfc">{{London Gazette |issue=31592 |date=12 October 1919|page=12527 |supp=y}}</ref>
<ref name="Gazette31825">{{London Gazette |issue=31825 |date=16 March 1920|page=3319 }}</ref>
<ref name="Gazette32983">{{London Gazette |issue=32983 |date=17 October 1924 |page=7510 }}</ref>
}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Yeats-Brown,+Francis | name=Francis Yeats-Brown}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Yeats-Brown, Francis Charles Claypon|name=Francis Yeats-Brown|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Francis Yeats-Brown}}

{{Authority control}}

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

Francis Yeats-Brown - Revision history

Bot at 16:59, 22 October 2022