The Legend of W.E. Fairbairn, Gentleman and Warrior: The Shanghai Years [Hardcover]

The culmination of years of research by the late Peter Robins, the biography of W.E. Fairbairn, "the father of CQB" has been published.

Entitled " Fairbairn The Gentleman Warrior" this first volume covers his early life, the Shanghai years, up until the start of WW-2. A subsequent volume will cover the rest of the story of how he trained the Commandos, SOE, OSS etc.

Chapters include "The Shanghai School of Shooting" "USMC in Shanghai" "WEF Manuals" Also, lots of excerpts from Cavalcade, [Fairbairn's handwritten journal], a very detailed chapter on the Shanghai shooting school [including a comparison with Captain Tracy's methods.

Much also on the SMP training, including diagrams and photos of the assault/obstacle course.

Loads of cases of the SMP engaging bandits, kidnappers and drug runners in the alleys, brothels and opium-dens of "the World's most dangerous city"

The text is heavily illustrated with numerous photos, many never before published.

[Review by Dennis Martin]

This hardback book is very well presented with clear typesetting and a page size allowing for generous margins all around which suggests an increased level of care and investment has been made in the printing and binding process which is to the credit of the authors and publishers.

Given the historical period in which this book is set it is entirely appropriate that the images used in this book are black and white and there are many previously unpublished being as they are from family and personal collections.

That said I became increasingly distracted (and finally irritated) by what appeared to be an obsessive use of a copyright notice under each and every image in this book which prompted the question "can the author(s) claim copyright on an image produced/held by another individual or for example a museum?"

Leaving the question aside, we get it - although we may own the book we don't own the image/s, move on.

I'm unsure as to the assertion that Fairbairn & Sykes looked forward to a "...peaceful retirement..." and that on their return to England "... were able to offer their exceptional skills..." (Page 6) given the earlier assertion by Capt Leslie Wood R.E. that he had a hand in 1939 in obtaining Fairbairn & Sykes from Shanghai (Wilkinson-Latham 2008).

The narrative is inconsistently interspersed with comments from ("Ed") in the same vein one might expect in a magazine which I found distracting and for me undermined the author's efforts. This inconsistency continued in the provision of some references to support various "facts" and the omission of others in most cases.
The brief history of Shanghai made for interesting reading, however an explanation of the voting rights mechanism (Collar 1990) may have evidenced the unjust voting mechanism on residents matters and why the Japanese attempted to take control of the SMC itself resulting in at least one shooting during a meeting.

The examples of criminality within Shanghai describes the corrupt and vice laden circumstances in which the SMP worked and inevitably were undermined, e.g. the Lien Kwe incident (Page 40) which set the scene very well indeed.

The references to Sykes being a "Shikari" and a sniper during WWI are not supported by evidence or other research but are merely repeated from unreferenced and unsupported sources, which I found disappointing.

Whilst accepting that this is a biography, this book does not come across as the result of even handed research but appears heavily biased and left me thinking "Did Fairbairn really do all this on his own?"

The inclusion of the tediously recounted details of the shooting course at Hythe may be of interest to some readers but left me (rightly or wrongly) thinking this was far too detailed for comfort when an appendices to this and other details would have been more appropriate if necessary at all.

The interpretation of some details described suggest practices not readily known such as firearms not being personal issue to each officer but drawn each day prompting the question "did off duty SMP officers carry firearms?"

The reference to "Dirty Fighting" in Yeaton's 1993 letter is of significant importance given the "ungentlemanly" description attributed to future training courses for the S.O.E. and Commandos in ungentlemanly warfare.

This is clearly a valuable piece of work that sheds light on a narrow piece of history which appears to me to be what carries the content, more due to its rarity than the quality of the writing and research itself.

I found myself having to take a leap of faith over much of what was included in this work as whilst some evidence to prove some assertions were provided in the majority of others it simply wasn't.

I had very high hopes for this book but for me the apparent bias of the author(s) which came across on more than one occaision as a form of "Hero worship" and the inconsistent writting style doesn't assist them in their efforts to place Fairbairn into the public record correctly.