Haldane MacFall (24 July 1860 – 25 July 1928) was a British Army officer who became an authoritative art critic, the author of several works of art history, an essayist and a novelist. He illustrated many of his own works, as well as bookplates and cover art for others, and exhibited at the Royal Academy.
Early life
Chambers Haldane Cooke MacFall was born in Roy Bareilli, Bengal, (now Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh), India on 24 July 1860. His father, David Chambers McFall (1833–1898) was an army surgeon attached to the Indian border regiment. His mother, Abigail Crawford, died while Haldane and his younger brother Albert William Crawford McFall (1862–1923) were young children. The family returned to England in the late 1860s and in 1870 Haldane's father remarried a sixteen year old, Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke, later to become a successful novelist under the pseudonym Sarah Grand. Like his father and grandfather Thomas, Haldane chose a career in the army and undertook officer training at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
Career
He graduated from Sandhurst as a Second Lieutenant and in 1885 joined the West India Regiment in Jamaica. After service in the West Indies he fought with the Regiment in the West Africa campaign, which was where he began his literary and artistic career, writing about his experiences for The Graphic and also contributing illustrations to the magazine. However, a tropical disease he contracted during his posting in West Africa forced his retirement from the army in 1890 with the rank of Lieutenant. Wishing to pursue his interest in art, he lived in Paris in the early 1890s, before returning to England to earn his livelihood mainly as a writer.
