Archibald Lyall was the writer of
Black and White Make Brown, and account of his journey in 1936 to the Cape Verde Islands and Portuguese Guinea (
republished by me in 2008). It was great fun to read and as I was looking to know more about the writer, apparently an Englishman, there was little that could be found. Over the years I gradually found more and more pieces and this year - after acquiring the 'In Memorian' of his friends - I could draw up the chronology below.
Archie (for friends) was not only a writer. From profession he was a barrister, but in his younger years he was mainly traveling through Europe and publishing several travel books. But also linguistic ('25 languages') and anthropological ('It Isn't done', 'The Future of Taboo') attempts were made. During his entire lifetime a constant stream of ('unpublishable') limericks was produced. In the thirties he then somehow landed in 'military intelligence' (a contradiction in terms he would say), and became a member of SOE (Special Operations Executive, a British WWII organization). This way he was stationed in several European locations, but also as far as Jerusalem and Cairo. From 1954 on he was mainly staying in Italy and in another career he became an actor in at least 6 Italian movies.
It appears that Archie's mother was very dominant - he said she was the only person he was ever really afraid of. It took him quite some years to be on his own and financially independent from his parents. Archie had a lot of friends at many different places, all of his friend say so in the 'In Memorian'. These friends all acknowledge positive memories about the pleasure they had in his company - his presence is rarely forgotten by everyone who has ever met him. There were no topics you could not have a conversation with him about. Also, when entering whatever remote hotel, bar or restaurant - he would always be recognized and be offered the better table with his company. The many diners and drinks also had their toll - as the years went by he would be in and out of hospitals and clinics, usually to lose weight. He was also suffering at many times from gout. Rather late he married, friends remarked he almost became 'normal' (even his clothes looked presentable), but it was destined not to last. His death came sudden, without any friends, in a clinic in Zurich.
Drawing by Osbert Lancaster (published in the 'In Memorian')
Father: George Henry Hudson Pile, after name change (1914) George Lyall (1872-1938), solicitor
x (1899) Mother: Dame Beatrix Margaret Hudson Lyall [née Rostron], ; in WWI head of Red Cross
wikipedia
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
National Portrait Gallery
Sister: Christina Marion Lyall (1908-1937)
x (1935) Rupert Lonsdale (Lieutenant-Commander)
Chronology
| 1904 | born in Chelsea/London |
| Education in Winchester |
| Education at New College, Oxford |
| 1930 | barrister (Lincoln’s Inn, London) |
| 1930 | [BOOK] The Balkan Road |
| 1930 | [BOOK] It Isn’t Done: or The Future of Taboo among the British Islanders |
| 1930-31 | through Engeland with Charles Carrington |
| 1932 | Belgrade |
| 1932 | [BOOK] Envoy Extraordinary |
| 1932 | [BOOK] A Guide to the 25 Languages of Europe |
| 1933 | [BOOK] Russian Roundabout |
| 1934 | Barcelona |
| 1937 | Salamanca |
| 1938 | [BOOK] Black and White Make Brown
|
| Carrington: “...Archie’s ostensible reason to go there in 1937 was to look into a herbal drug which the Africans of these parts were alleged to use as an oral contraceptive. In addition to this serious enquiry on behalf of a chemical laboratory he admitted to me that he was to check rumours that the Nazis were constructing submarine bases in the Bissagos Islands, which no Englishman had visited for many years.”; Carrington: “For the rest of his life I scrupulously refrained from asking him about his employment and I know nothing of what he did for SOE [Special Operations Executive, British WWII organisation], except that he again extended his acquaintance.” |
| 1939 | London |
| 1940 | [BOOK] Soldier's speak-easy: French and German for the British fighting forces |
| 1940-41 | Press attaché at the Legation in Belgrade |
| ~1942 | year in Jerusalem |
| 1942 | summer in Cairo (working for the Jugoslav section of Political Warfare) |
| 1943 | Jun in Cairo |
| 1944 | Apr in Bari |
| 1945 | Nov in Vienna |
| -1947 | Intelligence Corps (Middle East, Italy, Austria), demobilized with the rank of lieutenant-colonel |
| 1948 | married Diodata ('Didi') Hawkins (daughter of Count Caboga of Dubrovnik) |
| 1947-48 | (winter) chairman of Extradition Tribunal in the British Zone of Germany |
| 1948-1950 | head of the British Element of the Allied Information Services in Triest |
| 1950 | move to Rome |
| 1950-1951 | director of the Public Information Office of the Allied Military Government in the British-United States Zone of Trieste |
| 1954-55 | Rome |
| 1954 | [FILM] Un americano a Roma [L'ambasciatore, as Arcibaldo Layall] |
|    |
| 1955 | [FILM] L'arte di arrangiarsi [as Archibald Lyall] |
| 1956 | marriage dissolved |
| 1956 | [BOOK] Rome Sweet Rome |
| 1959 | tour through Morocco and Spain |
| 1959 | [FILM] Mission in Morocco |
| 1959 | [FILM] John Paul Jones [Steward, as Archie Lyall] |
| 1959 | [FILM] Saeta del ruiseñor |
| 1960 | [FILM] Nada menos que un arkángel |
|   |
| 1960 | Rome; Carrington: “...seriously ill in the Salvator-Mundi Hospital on the Janiculum.” |
| 1960 | [BOOK] Well Met in Madrid |
| 1962 | in Oct driving back from Italy with Carrington |
| 1963 | Norfolk |
| 1963 | [BOOK] Guide to the South of France |
| 1964 | died 25 Feb 1964 at Zurich Clinic |
| 1966 | [BOOK] In Memorian ARCHIE (1904-1964), by his friends (edited by Patricia Clarke and David Footman) |
| 1967 | [BOOK] History Syllabuses and a World Perspective (Education Today) |
| 1973 | [BOOK] The companion guide to Tuscany |
1 comment:
Archie was my uncle. Alas, I scarcely knew him, since he was rarely in England after the Second World War. But I was at his wedding to Didi and at the luncheon thereafter at the Dorchester Hotel, Park Lane where I disgraced myself by falling ill over the whale steak that was served (presumably because other meat was strictly rationed). In my teens we met annually, at his invitation, in the Oxford and Cambridge Club in Pall Mall, where he introduced me, probably a year or two before he should have done, to Bloody Marys. At his death in Zurich the Foreign Office telephoned me, so I went there and with the British Consul arranged for Archie's cremation. After such a full and friendly life it was a sadly lonely end. I inherited his wonderful library of inter-war novels and have a grandson named after him.
John Lonsdale (Emeritus Professor of Modern African History, University of Cambridge)
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