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→Army: Lives of a Bengal Lancer
A major theme is how you instill loyalty in what can be seen effectively as an army of occupation. The answer according to Mason is only by the highest standards of military conduct.
If your ancestors were in the Indian Army, whether under the East India Company or later, this book is highly recommended". (Richard MorganFIBIS trustee, 2008) * Yeats-Brown, Francis ''Lives of a Bengal Lancer''. This book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 1930. It is a palatable sized introduction to the life of a Bengal Lancer from 1905 until the time his regiment was disbanded at the end of the First World War. However it is not a mere military account as the book divides naturally into three sections of interest. Primarily, the life of an English cavalryman in the Bengal lancers is presented. Days of regimental routine interspersed with pig sticking, polo playing and visiting nautch girls. The cavalry regiment comprises both English and Indian soldiers and the author easily assimilates the attitudes of both worlds – the society of the west and the mysticism of the East. During the First World War Yeats-Brown is sent to France and later joins a flying corps in Mesopotamia – where is he captured by Turks. He eventually escapes and returns to India. However his days as a lancer are soon over and the reader is presented with a wonderful tour of India as he goes in search of practising gurus to learn the secrets of yoga and inner truth. An evocative and satisfying read. Recommended. (Beverly Hallam, FIBIS trustee)
