Gerald Yorke
Major Gerald Joseph Yorke (10 December 1901 – 29 April 1983) was an English soldier and writer. He was a Reuters correspondent while in China for two years in the 1930s, and wrote a book China Changes (1936).[1][2]
Life
Gerald Joseph Yorke was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on 10 December 1901; the second son of Vincent Wodehouse Yorke and Hon. Maud Evelyn Wyndham.[3] He attended Eton College, and then Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he gained a Bachelor of Arts. He joined the Territorial Army and was commissioned in the 21st (Gloucestershire Hussars) Armoured Car Company, Tank Corps in 1922,[4] later gaining the rank of Major. He married Angela Vivien Duncan, and the pair had three children: John Sarne, Vincent James and Michael Piers.[3]
The travels of Yorke together with his manservant Li through often bandit-stricken areas were part of China Changes and also commented on by adventurer and Special Correspondent to The Times Peter Fleming in his One's Company, a travelogue of a journey to China in 1933.[5]
Back in Britain at Forthampton Yorke was also the personal representative to the West of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (died 1933) and the author of an original foreword to a secret book on the Kalachakra initiation.[6] Yorke was also a member of the A∴A∴, the magical order established by Aleister Crowley (died 1947), and towards the end of Crowley's life was known as his chief disciple.
Bibliography
- China Changes, New York, C. Scribnerʼs Sons, 1936.
- Bibliography of the works of Aleister Crowley by Gerald Yorke. Mandrake Press, 1991.
- Aleister Crowley, the Golden Dawn and Buddhism: reminiscences and writings of Gerald Yorke, ed. Keith Richmond, Teitan Press, 2011.
- The Great Beast: the life of Aleister Crowley, by John Symonds with Gerald Yorke, 1951.
Cricket
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gerald Joseph Yorke | ||||||||||||||
| Born |
10 December 1901 Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England | ||||||||||||||
| Died |
29 April 1983 (aged 81) Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England | ||||||||||||||
| Relations | VW Yorke (father) | ||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | |||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | ||||||||||||||
| 1925 | Gloucestershire | ||||||||||||||
| Only First-class | 27 June 1925 Gloucestershire v Glamorgan | ||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Source: CricketArchive, 10 January 2011 | |||||||||||||||
He was also a keen cricketer who made a single first class appearance for Gloucestershire, against Glamorgan during the 1925 season. From the middle order, he scored a duck in the first innings in which he batted, and 6 runs in the second.
References
- ↑ The New York Times Book Review - Volume 1 1936 - Page 37 "A Reporter Observes China's Changes Mr. Yorke, a Reuters Correspondent, Spent Two Recent Years There come acquainted with the situation which was contributing to such a sweeping success of the invader. Some of the extraordinary ..."
- ↑ Now & Then: A Journal of Books and Personalities 1935 "This is what the Sunday Times said of Mr. Gerald Yorke's China Changes: This is a vital and absorbing book, which will give Western readers a far better understanding of the Chinese and their difficulties than many more pretentious volumes, .."
- 1 2 Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, page 1778.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 32739. p. 6098. 18 August 1922.
- ↑ Gareth Jones (journalist) : JOURNEY FROM CANTON TO CHANGSHA "(see Peter Fleming's One’s Company for a description of Li and of Gerald and also of the journey I did, except that Fleming and Gerald came with his Chinese servant Li from Changsha to Canton while I did it from Canton to Changsha)."
- ↑ HYMENAEUS BETA, ed. (19 December 2001). "MAGICK LIBER ABA, Book Four – Parts I–IV" (PDF). Retrieved 10 January 2011.
External links
- Gerald Yorke at Cricket Archive
- Gerald Yorke at Cricinfo