The Seven Lives of Colonel Patterson: How an Irish Lion Hunter Led the Jewish Legion to Victory by Denis Brian

Product Details

Synopsis

In this biography of Colonel John Henry Patterson, Denis Brian reveals his subject to be a composite of diverse identities. An Irish-born soldier, lion hunter, bridge builder, East African game warden, author, man-about-town, and Zionist, Patterson's life is a fascinating story, and Brian's well-researched account gives a revealing look into the ebb and flow of circumstances that produced such a colorful character.

Brian begins the narrative with Patterson's assignment in East Africa, where lion attacks were terrorizing workers on a railroad project. With the sure hand of the storyteller, Brian details accounts of Patterson quelling the rebellion and killing the lions himself. The colonel's indomitable energy and courage become a consistent theme in the book as the author traces Patterson's life from his days as a British socialite to his command of the Jewish Legion of volunteers who helped drive the Turks out of Palestine.

Patterson spent most of his later years as an ardent Zionist, working for the creation of a Jewish homeland until his death in 1947, a year before the birth of the state of Israel. Drawing on an impressive range of sources, Brian's biography of this "Righteous Gentile" is an incisive portrait of a key figure in both Israeli and colonial British history.

Jewish Book World

Despite the title, this book tells two stories. It begins with an account of Col. Patterson's adventures in Africa, but its major theme is really the development of Zionism, the creation of Israel, and the Colonel's part in the process. An Irish-born soldier of fortune, Patterson is introduced as a heroic, if at times imprudent and harsh commander. In Egypt he meets several hundred Russian Jewish refugees who are just as daring as he is. Together they form what eventually becomes the Jewish Legion, fighting in the British Army in World War I to free Palestine. Not easily cowed, Patterson defended his Jewish soldiers from blatant British anti-Semitism, to the detriment of his own career.
The book contains interesting behindthe-scenes views in its depiction of Patterson's efforts on behalf of the passage of the Balfour Declaration. Offered as an armchair adventure tale, the work also serves as the author's tribute to his subject's dedication to Jewish causes. Afterword, appendices, biographical notes, illustrations, index, prefix. JW

Biography

Denis Brian is the author of The True Gen: An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemingway by Those Who Knew Him and Murderers and Other Friendly People: The Public and Private Worlds of Interviewers.