View source for Gerald Yorke

{{short description|English soldier and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox cricketer
|          name = Gerald Yorke
|             country = England
|            fullname = Gerald Joseph Yorke
|          birth_date = {{Birth date|1901|12|10|df=yes}}
|        birth_place = [[Tewkesbury]], [[Gloucestershire]], England
|          death_date = {{Death date and age|1983|4|29|1901|12|10|df=yes}}
|        death_place = Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, England
|              family = <small>[[Vincent Yorke|VW Yorke]] (father)</small>
|               club1 = [[Gloucestershire County Cricket Club|Gloucestershire]]
|               year1 = 1925
|               type1 = First-class
|            onetype1 = true
|          debutdate1 = 27 June
|          debutyear1 = 1925
|           debutfor1 = Gloucestershire
|       debutagainst1 = [[Glamorgan County Cricket Club|Glamorgan]]
|      hidedeliveries = true
|             columns = 1
|             column1 = [[First-class cricket|First-class]]
|            matches1 = 1
|               runs1 = 6
|            bat avg1 = 3.00
|           100s/50s1 = 0/0
|          top score1 = 6
|  catches/stumpings1 = 0/–
|                date = 10 January
|                year = 2011
|              source = https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/34/34149/34149.html CricketArchive
}}
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).<ref>{{cite magazine |magazine=The New York Times Book Review |volume=1 |date=1936 |page=37 |title=A Reporter Observes China's Changes |quote=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 [...]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |journal=Now & then: A Journal of Books and Personalities |date=1935 |title=[untitled] |quote=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, [...]}}</ref>
==Life==
Gerald Joseph Yorke was born in the family home, Forthampton Court, near [[Tewkesbury]], [[Gloucestershire]], on 10 December 1901; the second son of [[Vincent Yorke|Vincent Wodehouse Yorke]] and Hon. Maud Evelyn Wyndham.<ref name="peerage">{{cite book |editor-first=Charles |editor-last=Mosley |url= |title=Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage |edition=107th |place=Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. |publisher=Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd |year=2003 |volume=2 |page=1778}}</ref>  His younger brother was the novelist, [[Henry Green|Henry Yorke]], who wrote under the penname 'Henry Green'. He attended [[Eton College]], and then [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]], [[Cambridge University]], where he gained a first class degree in history [[Bachelor of Arts]]. On leaving university, an interest in the occult and mysticism led him to contact [[Aleister Crowley]], with whom he was closely associated for four years. Yorke was also a member of Crowley's magical order the [[A∴A∴]], and supervised a number of [[Initiation|neophyte]] members.
He joined the [[Territorial Army (United Kingdom)|Territorial Army]] and was commissioned in the [[Royal Gloucestershire Hussars|21st (Gloucestershire Hussars) Armoured Car Company, Tank Corps]] in 1922,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=32739|date=18 August 1922 |page=6098}}</ref> later gaining the rank of [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]].
In September 1932 Yorke left England for China, where he travelled extensively reporting for [[Reuters]] on the civil war and Japanese occupation of [[Manchuria]], and studying Chinese culture and [[Buddhism]]. The travels of Yorke together with his interpreter Li through often bandit-stricken areas were described in his book ''China Changes'' and also commented on by adventurer and Special Correspondent to ''The Times'' [[Peter Fleming (writer)|Peter Fleming]] in his ''[[One's Company]]'', a travelogue of a journey to China in 1933.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jones |first=Gareth |author-link=Gareth Jones (journalist) |url=http://www.garethjones.org/articles_far_east/canton_to_changsha.htm |title=JOURNEY FROM CANTON TO CHANGSHA |quote=(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).}}</ref> Some of his papers from this period have been given to the library of the [[School of Oriental and African Studies]] at London University.
Returning to England he took a managerial position with the family firm, Pontifex & Co., brewing and sanitary engineers. He married Angela Vivien Duncan, elder daughter of Major General Sir John Duncan, and the pair had three children: John Sarne, Vincent James and Michael Piers.{{CN|date=December 2024}} During the war years the family lived in Cambridge where Yorke was posted to oversee airfield defence. At the cessation of hostilities, he took a position in the London office of Pontifex, with the family dividing their time between Forthampton Court and their house in Montagu Square, Marylebone. 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.<ref>* {{cite book |last=Crowley |first=Aleister |author-link=Aleister Crowley |editor=Beta, Hymenaeus |editor-link=William Breeze |title=[[Magick (Book 4)|Magick: Liber ABA, Book Four, Parts I-IV]] |year=1997 |place=York Beach, Maine |publisher=Samuel Weiser |isbn=0-87728-919-0}}</ref>
Although no longer a practising occultist, Yorke retained a strong interest in the subject, particularly in the work of Aleister Crowley. Towards the end of Crowley's life Yorke was known as his chief disciple and during this period and after Crowley's death, Yorke assembled an important collection of relevant books and documents which he bequeathed to the [[Warburg Institute]] of the University of London.
In his late fifties, Yorke became increasingly immersed in the study and practice of Buddhism, served on the council of the [[Buddhist Society]], and spoke regularly at their meetings. His editorial skills and contacts in the publishing industry, especially his part time position with Rider & Co. and Allen & Unwin,  meant that he was able to play an important role in bringing the works of the Dalai Lama to an English-speaking audience, and he also oversaw the publication of texts by then-unknown but now-famous authors such as [[B.K.S. Iyengar]], whose work was seminal to the introduction of Yoga to the West.  From this period his correspondence with authors and publishers has been gifted to [[Reading University]]. Yorke died in his eighty-second year after a short illness.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Keith |editor-last=Richmond |title=Aleister Crowley, The Golden Dawn and Buddhism Reminiscences and Writings of Gerald Yorke |place=York Beach, Maine |publisher=The Teitan Press |year=2011}} (inside front jacket flap).</ref>
==Cricket==
He was also a keen [[cricket]]er who made a single first-class appearance for [[Gloucestershire County Cricket Club|Gloucestershire]], against [[Glamorgan County Cricket Club|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.
==Publications==
* {{cite book |last=Yorke |first=Gerald |title=China Changes |place=New York |publisher=C. Scribnerʼs Sons |year=1936 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Yorke |first=Gerald |chapter=Bibliography of the works of Aleister Crowley |title=The Great Beast: the Life of Aleister Crowley |editor-last=Symonds |editor-first=John |editor-link=John Symonds |year=1951 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Yorke |first=Gerald |title=Bibliography of the works of Aleister Crowley |publisher=Black Lodge Pub. |year=1991 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Yorke |first=Gerald |title=Aleister Crowley, the Golden Dawn and Buddhism: Reminiscences and Writings of Gerald Yorke |editor-first=Keith |editor-last=Richmond |publisher=Teitan Press |year=2011 |ref=none}} Includes "A Reminiscence" by Timothy d'Arch Smith; "The Yorke Bibliography of Aleister Crowley" revised by Clive Harper; and "Some Memories and an Interview " by [[David Tibet]].
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*[https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/34/34149/34149.html Gerald Yorke] at Cricket Archive
*[http://espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/23560.html Gerald Yorke] at Cricinfo
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[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:English journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century English poets]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Royal Gloucestershire Hussars officers]]
[[Category:English cricketers]]
[[Category:Gloucestershire cricketers]]
[[Category:People from Tewkesbury]]
[[Category:Cricketers from Gloucestershire]]