Fairlie, Gerard

An English journalist, army officer and athlete, who became famous for a suite of novels about the adventurer Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond whom Fairlie had taken over after Drummond’s creator Cyril McNeile (pseudonym: Sapper) died in 1937. Fairlie was born in Kensington in London, but lived for a few years when young in Brussels where his father worked temporarily. When the family moved back to England, he attended Downsider School in Somerset 1912–17 and subsequently the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst 1917–18 before joining the army in the final year of the First World War. He was a promising athlete, his achievements including being the army heavyweight-boxing champion in 1919 and a member of the English Olympic bobsleigh team in 1924 (they came fifth in the finals).