Bartholomew Bandy
Encyclopedia
The Bandy Papers is a series of novels by British-Canadian author Donald Jack
Donald Jack
Donald Lamont Jack was a Canadian novelist and playwright.He was born in Radcliffe, Bury, England and grew up in Britain, attending the well regarded Bury Grammar School and Marr College and later serving in the RAF in World War II .After the war he emigrated to Canada in 1951, and became a...

 chronicling the exploits of a World War I fighter ace named Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy. Every book in the Bandy Papers series contains the word 'me' in the title as do many of the chapter titles which can also be interpreted as photo captions.

Bandy was born on July 14, 1893. Physically he is described as over 6 feet tall and with a face like a horse. His voice is high pitched and whiney and is said to resemble that of W.C. Fields, whom he once met. This combination seems to drive most people (and many animals) he meets to dislike him and as a result he has developed a 'stone face' to counter these attacks (a defense that often back-fires by inciting his enemies to greater levels of malice). His talents, although well disguised, are real and he has certainly been an influential (though minor) character in history.

Bandy was born and raised in Beamington, Ontario in the Ottawa Valley, where his father was a Minister. From his published papers he seems to have had a difficult time fitting in with his school mates. There is a reference in Me Bandy, You Cissie that he was an invalid for a time during his childhood. He finished school and was at the University of Toronto Medical School when the First World War broke out.

Bandy volunteered for the infantry in 1916 after being kicked out of medical school and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Canadian Army. After spending some time in the trenches, it was decided that the infantry was not entirely suited to his talents and so he was transferred into the Royal Flying Corps, where he stayed on and off for the rest of the war, until being sent to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 to fight Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

s, where he was captured by Bolshevik forces at the Battle of Toulgas on November 11, 1918. His military career went from the heights of the Air Board to the lows of fighting in a Bicycle Battalion. He left the Air Force in 1920 as a Lieutenant acting Major General!

After the war and his imprisonment in Russia, Bandy had short but illustrious careers in silent films, rum-running and politics. When several of his careers threatened to land him in prison (or worse, Cabinet) Bandy returned to Europe flying via Iceland
Iceland
Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 in an attempt to restore his fortunes through the marketing of The Gander, an amphibious aircraft of his design. His plans came to naught when he lost the Gander during the rescue of a downed aviator in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...

. He was forced to seek employment as a lowly hospital porter until being sought out by the rescued aviator, who turned out to be the son of an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n Maharajah. Offered employment in the Maharajah's air force, Bandy continued his long tradition of upsetting the powers that be by accepting this controversial appointment. This led to him being Knighted but he seldom used his title. It is mentioned that he flew for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War but this is not detailed. In World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Bandy again fought against Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

and became re-acquainted with a son from a previous adventure. In the final volume of the series, Bandy faces Germany's top fighter pilot in combat before returning to the Soviet Union for the Yalta conference at the end of the war, where he has to cope with Stalin's paranoia and secret police.

The books are noted for their humour and word play, as well as technical and historic accuracy (except possibly in India).
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