British writer, solicitor.
Born in Walmer, Kent (England), Dornford Yates was the son of a solicitor and attended Harrow School and Oxford University. An active member of the Oxford University Dramatic Society, he made friends with a number of people who would later help him in his career, including Oscar Asche with whom he collaborated in 1919 on Eastwood Ho!. Yates entered the bar in 1909, but spent much of his spare time writing short stories. A number of these were published in the Windsor Magazine. His first book, The Brother of Daphne, a collection of his early short stories, was published in 1914. After the First World War, during which he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in Egypt and the Balkans, he decided to pursue a literary career. He soon afterwards moved to France, where it was possible to live more cheaply, and remained there until 1941, at which time he moved to Rhodesia. He was re-commissioned in the Royal Rhodesian Regiment, attaining the rank of Major. Yates continued writing up until his death in March 1960.
