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Peter Fleming | |
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| Born | Robert Peter Fleming (1907-05-31)31 May 1907 Mayfair, London, England |
| Died | 18 August 1971(1971-08-18) (aged 64) Bridge of Orchy, Scotland[1] |
| Resting place | St. Bartholomew's Churchyard, Nettlebed |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingLucy |
| Parents |
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| Relatives | Ian Fleming (brother) Amaryllis Fleming (half-sister) Robert Fleming (grandfather) |
Robert Peter FlemingOBE DL (31 May 1907 – 18 August 1971) was a British adventurer, journalist, soldier andtravel writer.[2] He was the elder brother ofIan Fleming,[3] creator ofJames Bond, and attained the British military rank ofLieutenant Colonel.
Peter Fleming was one of four sons of thebarrister andMember of Parliament (MP)Valentine Fleming, who was killed in action during World War I in 1917, having served as MP forHenley from 1910. Fleming was educated atDurnford School and atEton, where he edited theEton College Chronicle. The Peter Fleming Owl (the English meaning of "Strix", the name under which he later wrote forThe Spectator) is still awarded every year to the best contributor to theChronicle.[4] He went on from Eton toChrist Church, Oxford, and graduated with a first-class degree in English.
Fleming was a member of theBullingdon Club during his time at Oxford.[5] On 10 December 1935 he married the actressCelia Johnson (1908–1982), best known for her roles in the filmsBrief Encounter andThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.[6]
In April 1932 Fleming replied to an advertisement in the personal columns ofThe Times: "Exploring and sporting expedition, under experienced guidance, leaving England June to explore rivers central Brazil, if possible ascertain fate ColonelPercy Fawcett; abundant game, big and small; exceptional fishing; room two more guns; highest references expected and given." He then joined the expedition, organised by Robert Churchward, to São Paulo, then overland to the riversAraguaia andTapirapé, heading towards the last-known position of the Fawcett expedition.
During the inward journey the expedition was riven by increasing disagreements as to its objectives and plans, centred particularly on its local leader, whom Fleming disguised as "Major Pingle" when he wrote about the expedition. Fleming andRoger Pettiward (a school and university friend recruited onto the expedition as a result of a chance encounter with Fleming) led a breakaway group.
This group continued for several days up the Tapirapé to São Domingo, from where Fleming, Pettiward, Neville Priestley and one of the Brazilians hired by the expedition set out to find evidence of Fawcett's fate on their own. After acquiring two Tapirapé guides the party began a march to the area where Fawcett was reported to have last been seen. They made slow progress for several days, losing the Indian guides and Neville to foot infection, before admitting defeat.
The expedition's return journey was made down the River Araguaia toBelém. It became a closely fought race between Fleming's party and "Major Pingle", the prize being to be the first to report home, and thus to gain the upper hand in the battles over blame and finances that were to come. Fleming's party narrowly won. The expedition returned to England in November 1932.
Fleming's book about the expedition,Brazilian Adventure, has sold well ever since it was first published in 1933, and is still in print.[as of?]
Fleming travelled from Moscow to Peking via the Caucasus, the Caspian, Samarkand, Tashkent, theTurksib Railway and theTrans-Siberian Railway to Peking as a special correspondent ofThe Times. His experiences were recorded inOne's Company (1934). He then went overland in company ofElla Maillart from China viaTunganistan to India on a journey written up inNews from Tartary (1936). These two books were combined asTravels in Tartary: One's Company and News from Tartary (1941). All three volumes were published by Jonathan Cape.
According to Nicolas Clifford, for Fleming China "had the aspect of a comic opera land whose quirks and oddities became grist for the writer, rather than deserving any respect or sympathy in themselves".[7] InOne's Company, for example, Fleming reports that Beijing was "lacking in charm", Harbin was a city of "no easily definable character". Changchun was "entirely characterless", and Shenyang was "non-descript and suburban". However, Fleming also provides insights intoManchukuo, the Japanese puppet state inManchuria, which helped contemporary readers to understand Chinese resentment and resistance, and the aftermath of theKumul Rebellion. In the course of these travels Fleming met and interviewed many prominent figures in Central Asia and China, including theChinese Muslim GeneralMa Hushan, the Chinese Muslim Taoyin ofKashgar,Ma Shaowu, andPuyi.
OfTravels in Tartary,Owen Lattimore remarked that Fleming, who "passes for an easy-going amateur, is in fact an inspired amateur whose quick appreciation, especially of people, and original turn of phrase, echoingP. G. Wodehouse in only a very distant and cultured way, have created a unique kind of travel book". Lattimore added that it "is only in the political news from Tartary that there is a disappointment", as, in his view, Fleming offers "a simplified explanation, in terms of Red intrigue and Bolshevik villains, which does not make sense."[8]
Stuart Stevens retraced Peter Fleming's route and wrote his own travel book.[9]
Just before war was declared, Fleming, then a reserve officer in theGrenadier Guards, was recruited by the War Office research section investigating the potential of irregular warfare (MIR). His initial task was to develop ideas to assist the Chinese guerrillas fighting the Japanese. He served in the Norwegian campaign with the prototype commando units – Independent Companies – but in May 1940 he was tasked with research into the potential use of the newLocal Defence Volunteers (later the Home Guard) as guerrilla troops. His ideas were first incorporated into General Thorne's XII Corps Observation Unit, forerunner of the GHQAuxiliary Units. Fleming recruited his brother, Richard, then serving in theFaroe Islands, to provide a core ofLovat Scout instructors to his teams of LDV volunteers.[10]
Meanwhile, Fleming wrote a speculative novel calledThe Flying Visit in which he imaginedAdolf Hitler flying to Britain to propose peace with that nation, only to have the United Kingdom let him return in light of the awkward diplomatic quandary he placed the British government in. It proved bizarrely prescient in 1941 when Hitler's Deputy,Rudolf Hess, did that exact excursion into Britain and Britain found their new high ranked Nazi prisoner cumbersome for their foreign and propaganda policies.[11]
WhenColin Gubbins was appointed to head the newAuxiliary Units, he incorporated many of Peter's ideas, which aimed to create secret commando teams of Home Guard in the coastal districts most liable to the risk of invasion. Their role was to launch sabotage raids on the flanks and rear of any invading army, in support of regular troops, but they were never intended as a post-occupation 'resistance' force, having a life expectancy of only two weeks.[12]
Fleming later served in Greece, but his principal service, from 1942 to the end of the war, was as head of D Division,[13] in charge ofmilitary deception operations in Southeast Asia, based inNew Delhi, India. He was scheduled to take part in the second Chindit operation, but this was cut short by the premature crash landing of a defective glider. The episode is described in an appendix Fleming contributed to Michael Calvert's book on the operation.[14]
Fleming was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire in the1945 Birthday Honours and in 1948 he was awarded theOrder of the Cloud and Banner with Special Rosette by theRepublic of China.[15][16]
After the war Fleming retired to squiredom atNettlebed, Oxfordshire and was appointed aDeputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire on 31 July 1970.[17]
Fleming died on 18 August 1971 from a heart attack while on a shooting expedition nearGlen Coe inScotland. His body was buried in the graveyard ofSt Bartholomew’s Church in Nettlebed, where astained glass window dedicated to his memory was installed in the church in 1976. Designed byJohn Piper and made byPatrick Reyntiens, It depicts theTree of Life with a menagerie of birds of its branches.[18][19]
Fleming's gravestone has verses he wrote himself:
He travelled widely in far places;
Wrote, and was widely read.
Soldiered, saw some of danger's faces,
Came home to Nettlebed.
The squire lies here, his journeys ended –
Dust, and a name on a stone –
Content, amid the lands he tended,
To keep this rendezvous alone.[20]
After the death of his brotherIan in 1964, Fleming served on the board ofGlidrose, a company purchased by Ian to hold the literary rights to his writing, particularly theJames Bond novels and short stories.
Peter and Celia Fleming remained married until his death in 1971. He was survived by their three children, includingLucy Fleming.
Fleming was the godfather of the British author and journalistDuff Hart-Davis, who wrotePeter Fleming: A Biography (published by Jonathan Cape in 1974). Duff's fatherRupert Hart-Davis, a publisher, was a close friend of Fleming.
The Peter Fleming Award, worth £9,000, is given by theRoyal Geographical Society for a "research project that seeks to advance geographical science".[21]
Fleming's book about theBritish military expedition to Tibet in 1903 to 1904 is credited in the Chinese filmRed River Valley (1997).
Fleming was a special correspondent forThe Times and often wrote under the pen-name "Strix" (Latin for "screech owl") as an essayist forThe Spectator.
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