The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

by Francis Yeats-Brown

India was one of the most adventurous and romantic places on Earth in the early twentieth century. Though decades of political unrest, and eventual independence from Britain, were only a few years away, India in the early 1910s was a magnet for young men with a longing for adventure. Such a man was Francis Yeats Brown. Arriving in 1905, Brown soon discovered that life among his chosen regiment, the famed Bengal Lancers, was anything but boring. When he wasn't practising his military skills, the young cavalryman was riding his various horses in polo matches, or chasing wild boars. Plus there were a million mysteries waiting outside his door to explore, including his forbidden love affair with Masheen, the dancing girl. Yet in addition to being a skilful soldier and an intrepid traveller, Yeats Brown was a terrific writer. He takes the reader to out-of-the-way corners of the India that once was, but is no more. There he introduces a timeless cast of fakirs, mercenaries, rajas, and rogues. It was normal in the colourful world that Yeats-Brown moved through to have breakfast with an English general, then pass the time of day with a native whose speciality was locating cobras in the bedroom! Thus "The Lives of a Bengal Lancer" remains a charming classic full of delightful descriptions, mystic experiences, and enduring legends from a place and a time now gone forever.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, India, Memoir

308 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1930

About the author

Major Francis Charles Claypon Yeats-Brown, DFC

Reviews

[Catherine Lienhard]

Read this years ago but loved it after the second reading. What a colorful, adventurous philosophical story it is! Much on Yoda, Vedanta and the Hindu religion.

(read 10/21/67)

[James Horgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I doubt we that today we understand how important India was on the British psyche before the end of Empire. Large numbers of men went there to work, rule, fight and make their fortune. It is a vast country, populous, strange, varied. Who can get to grips with it?

After Independence India has gradually become more and more unknown to the West. Our experience is mainly curries! But at the time this book was written the fascination was strong.

Francis Yeats-Brown went out to India before the First World War to join an autonomous regiment of Bengal cavalry on the North West Frontier. The companies were organised by religion and the whole seemed to act like a big family. India was all polo, pig-sticking and the occasional foray against rebels.

Along came the Great War and Yeats-Brown ended up as a spotter in a Longhorn. A failed sabotage mission at Kut led to two years of grim captivity.

Returning to India and the army he continued his fascination with Indian religion, particularly yoga. There are descriptions of various Indian festivals including that of Jaganath and his car at Puri (the origin of our word jugernaut) and Benares.

The work ends as he spends time with a yogic guru melding all religions into one. No less popular now than then as mystical Hindu paradoxes cover the page, so that Jesus becomes a guru and Lazarus a breath-holding yogi.

Somehow this book was made into a film (I have no idea how you would extract a plot from it) and it was Hitler's favourite!

Odd and intriguing. Mainly odd with a window into what Empire was like a century ago.

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Francis Yeats-Brown's autobiography about his time with the famed 17th Bengal Lancer unit, the finest British military unit in India during the early 1900's and 1910's. It is an adventure story in a time romanticized in British history and villainized in Indian history. Interesting, but I found some of it boring when it wavered too far from adventure into fascist politics. The most scandalous part is that he had an affair with an Indian woman, which was looked down upon by both the Brits and Indians.

[Rupert Matthews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read, and a fascinating account of the life of a British officer in the latter years of the Raj. The only reason this did not get a 5* was because it is so dated. The launguage is old fashioned and the author's preoccupations are very much of his age. That said, a cracking read if you can get past the dated nature of the prose.

[William Pike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started very well with descriptions of life in the Indian cavalry before WW1 but soon degenerated into woolly mystical waffle about the pursuit of 'Yoga'. A serious disappointment in the end.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Those expecting an adventure story will be surprised by this thoughtful and surprisingly deep autobiography of the author's decades as a British officer in India. That is, there is surprisingly little about military affairs or life (or, 'Lancing", to coin a term), and a very great deal about the author's awakening to Indian philosophy and personal discipline in the form of a variety of forms of Yoga. Due to Yeats-Brown's insistence on alternating between both parts of his life - the, to him, mundane and even 'shallow' life of an officer in the 17th Bengal Lancers, and the more fulfilling search for spiritual fulfillment - the book is really an extraordinary statement of the fullness of the author's life, inner and outer. Few autobiographies, especially from 1930 and especially those penned by a military officer, combine this type of inner-outer life. So, in many ways it is deeply impressive, and written with a lyricism and love of India that is inescapable. Still, if one imagines that the book will deliver 'simple' adventure stuff in the line of the classic Hollywood movie made with this books' title, one will be disappointed. Some of that sort of thing is present (particularly in the author's experiences in the Great War in Mesopotamia), and his love of the horsey life (polo) is clearly indicated, but the book is not really primarily about such matters.

[Joss · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curiosity. This is the same as Lives of a Bengal Lancer but my 1931 edition has the title as given. As others have commented, not much in the way of tales of derring do. Apart from a section during the First World War during which he is sent to Mesopotamia with the Royal Flying Corps where he is captured by Turks and escapes, his time in India is taken up with polo matches and wafting around visiting temples, discussing religion with assorted pandits and gurus, and saying things like "Soon the lights of Government House will be swallowed up and its bricks will crumble. and all our works of power and pride will be transmuted to colloidal particles and gases in the twinkling of Siva's eye." Which is about right.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it better once I realized it was an autobiography.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvelously lyrical phrasing, with wonderfully evocative imagery. It really carried me with it to an India that I was born too late to see for myself. Recommended.

[Philip Tidman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very pleasantly surprised. This was far better than I expected, offering an insight, not only to British Army life, both in peace time and war, but also to India in the early 20th century.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this many decades ago because I liked adventure films, this book is far more about how the author found enlightenment. Time for a reread, my much older self will probably appreciate it more.

[Richard T. Wisp · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm giving him 1(one) star for his fascist politics.

[Muriel Schwenck · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/yeatsb...

[Poilu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paints an interesting picture of his life in India

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good until the last 10%