George Udny Yule 1871-1951

Abstract George Udny Yule was born at Morham near Haddington on 18 February 1871. He was the youngest of a family of three surviving infancy. His two sisters died in 1914 and 1927. Yule’s ancestral stock were Scotch farmers, but the family carries a long tradition of scholarship and learning, and his immediate ancestors had close associations with India. His father, Sir George Udny Yule (1813-1886), was a member of the Bengal Civil Service and was distinguished for his administrative work in India. Sir George married Henrietta Peach ( ob. 1912), daughter of Captain Robert Boilean Pemberton of the Indian Army, in 1862. Sir George’s elder brother Robert (1817-1857) was killed in action in Delhi commanding the 9th Hussars during the Indian Mutiny. His younger brother Henry (1820-1890) became a colonel in the Royal Engineers and was also knighted. Sir Henry prepared what became the standard translation of Marco Polo and was the author of a glossary of Hobson-Jobson AngloIndian words and phrases. Fie also edited several volumes for the Hakluyt Society. Yule’s grandfather, William, who was born nearly two centuries ago (1764), also had literary interests. Some Persian manuscripts collected by him are in the British Museum and he printed a lithographic facsimile of a manuscript of the Apothegms of Alee. A grand-uncle, John Yule, M.D., published one or two short tracts on botanical subjects. When Yule was about four years old the family left their country house in Scotland and came to live in London, first in Tooting and then in Bayswater. They remained there until his father’s death. Yule first attended a day-school in Orme Square, Bayswater, and then for three years went to a preparatory school at Dunchurch near Rugby. At the age of thirteen he went to Winchester, where he remained for a further three years. During his stay at Winchester he developed an interest in physics which was recognized and encouraged by Mr W. B. Croft, the physics master at the time.