George Eliot Fielding was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1894. When he was
eight years old his father was offered a job in Australia and the
family moved there, settling in Melbourne. He graduated from the
University of Melbourne in 1914. When World War I broke out he joined
the Australian army as a lieutenant. He served in the infantry in the
Dardanelles and Egyptian campaigns, and was then transferred to the
Western front, where he fought in France. He was discharged in 1918
with the rank of major.
In 1919 he decided to return to the US, but at a stopover in Canada he
discovered that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were accepting
recruits, and he enlisted for a two-year hitch. After his discharge he
finally arrived in the US, settling in Kansas City, MO. He took a job
as an accountant, but began writing stories with a World War I
background. He also served for a while in the Missouri National Guard,
then was transferred to the Military Intelligence Reserve of the US
Army from 1922-1930. During this time he began writing fiction stories
with a military background while immersing himself in the study of
military history and military research. After he left the military he
got a job as a military correspondent for the New York Herald-Tribune
and Life magazine. He was an acknowledged expert on military history
and lectured and wrote extensively on national defense matters.
