Title: Younghusband
Author: French, Patrick
Published by: Flamingo
Year: 1995
First published: Harper Collins, 1994
Date reviewed: 12.98

Patrick French has written a fascinating, well-researched and readable account of the life of Sir Francis Younghusband, soldier, explorer, mountaineer, diplomat, spy, and mystic. If at the end I still find it impossible to define or understand the man, it is not for lack of trying on French’s part – I came to the conclusion that Younghusband defies categorisation. What drove him remains a mystery.

Born in the late Victorian era into a loveless and dysfunctional family, Younghusband grew up to value "manliness" and "clean living". He was shy, socially inept and politically naive. Until the last years of his life he was unable to form any close relationships with women, nor, probably, with men. French considers the possibility that Younghusband’s relationship with his sister was incestuous, but comes to no conclusion. It was certainly enduring, and for her part she remained faithful to the brother she doted upon. Younghusband’s letters to Emmie do express his fondness and regard for her, and French believes

"For the first thirty years of his life she was almost the only person to whom he could open up his heart. For all the mutual anguish that was caused by their bizarre relationship, it did at least give Francis some form of emotional security."

There were a few other women too – Nellie Douglas, to whom Younghusband paid the ultimate compliment: "You would make a splendid Colonel of a Cavalry Regiment if you were a man.", is described by French as "closer to a therapist than a lover." And there was his wife Helen, with whom he signed a pre-marital agreement that they would abstain from sex after marriage (they didn’t), and who ended her life like sister Emmie, ignored in an institution.

With men Younghusband was shy, and often felt socially inadequate. He seems to have flourished best when he had a mentor to whom he could look up – the politician Curzon being the most significant.

He drove himself to physical extremes, achieving some amazing feats of endurance, and stayed physically fit into later life. He stands out as a mountaineer and explorer in the Himalayas, although some of his exploits show outright foolhardiness, or pig-headedness. The crossing of the Murtagh Pass, which afterwards came for him to symbolise an irrevocable step, is an early example. French shows that his accounts of these exploits, particularly as they relate to his own role and his relations with others involved, benefited from the gloss of distance in space and time.

So why is he so hard to understand, and to sum up? In his life he made several astonishing 180° reversals, all of which he seems to have taken in his stride with no sense of the contradictions involved. Starting as a committed and dogmatic Imperialist, he later became a strong advocate of Indian independence. The racism by which he justified the right of "developed" nations to impose their rule on others gave way to an admiration of the spirituality and culture of India. And an attitude to sex which initially seems at best to be described as indifference, suddenly changed in the last three years of his life into a profound love affair with a married woman over 30 years younger than himself.

His own form of religion came to dominate his life once he finally returned to England. French treats this dispassionately, leaving me to wonder how Younghusband’s mish-mash of Eastern mysticism, naive Utopianism, spiritual revelation, and so on, could have attracted so many followers. There were then, and for all I know may still be now, people who believe he was a genuine spiritual leader.

But nothing in this book makes me believe he himself really believed in anything. He seems to me to be "going through the motions", playing at spirituality as he played at exploration or politics. That is not to say he was a cynical exploiter (although some aspects of his relationship with his "soul mate" Madeline Lees betray the exploitative characteristics of the professional guru). Nor by "playing" do I imply a lack of serious intent: I get the impression that Younghusband was always serious about the various roles he played. French leaves me feeling Younghusband didn’t so much believe in the spirituality he preached, rather that he thought it would somehow be "good" or "right" [my words] if what he said were to be true; that the planet Altair really was home to a race of highly intelligent and advanced beings, or that Madeline might give birth to a new "god-child".

Although he played at these things, he played earnestly and (mostly) honestly, but ultimately with only a shallow understanding. He did not trouble too much to look for reasons or motives, whether his own or other people’s, which left him open to exploitation. Despite his heroic exploits there are few lasting achievements to his name. When a friend recommended this book and offered to lend it to me, I knew Younghusband’s name but couldn’t recall how or why I knew it. Now I know why I didn’t know.