Historical person
Gyles Mackrell
1888–1959
Gyles Mackrell was a British tea planter who had served in aviation during the First World War and received the Distinguished Flying Cross. By the Second World War he was working in Assam, close to the difficult frontier country between British India and Burma.
In 1942, as the Japanese advance through Burma forced civilians and soldiers towards India, Mackrell organised elephants and mahouts to rescue groups trapped by swollen rivers and jungle terrain near the frontier. His efforts saved refugees who otherwise faced an exceptionally dangerous crossing, and he was later awarded the George Medal for his part in the rescue.
Andrew Martin’s Flight by Elephant reconstructs Mackrell’s life and the 1942 rescue, placing his improvised operation within the wider British retreat from Burma and the humanitarian crisis on the India–Burma border.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring Gyles Mackrell (1 book)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.