Lindsay Bashford

Major Radclyffe James Lindsay Bashford (6 February 1881 – 20 August 1921) was at various times in his relatively brief life, an academic, journalist, novelist and soldier. He was employed by both Joseph Pulitzer and Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe and is best remembered as the Literary Editor of the Daily Mail from 1906 to 1914.

Early life The son of Frederick Bashford, Lindsay Bashford was born on 6 February 1881 in London. His brother Henry Howarth Bashford was a physician and novelist. He was educated at Bedford Modern School, at schools in Germany, at the University of Edinburgh and the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques in Paris.

The Daily Mail In 1905 he returned to England and took up a position as a reporter on The Daily News, and in 1906 he was appointed the new Literary Editor of the Daily Mail.

Novels Lindsay Bashford had three of his own novels published: Everybody's Boy (1912), Splendrum (1914) and Cupid in the Car (1914).

War As tensions grew in Europe in 1914, the Mail sent Bashford to Vienna and Rome as special correspondent to report on the developing crisis. Back in England after the outbreak of War he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps. He fought at Gallipoli in 1915 and served in Egypt and Palestine until 1919, rising to the rank of Staff-Major. He was mentioned in despatches 3 times and awarded the OBE.

Later life In 1919 he returned to the Daily Mail as a foreign correspondent in France, Germany, Poland and the Baltic States.