Boyle, Andrew Philip More, 1919-1991 (biographer, broadcaster and journalist)
Dates
- Existence: 1919 - 1991
Biography
Andrew Boyle was born at Dundee on 27 May 1919 into a devoutly Catholic family. His younger brother John entered the priesthood; while Andrew's faith was to be an important factor in his own life and career. He received his secondary schooling at Blair's College, Aberdeen, and then read philosophy at the University of Paris. On his return to England he volunteered for service in the Royal Air Force, and trained as a bomber pilot. In 1943 he was transferred to Military Intelligence and posted to the Far East, where he remained until 1946, latterly as press officer to Sir Claude Auchinleck. On his demobilisation in 1947, Andrew Boyle began working on the staffs of the Catholic Herald and the BBC (where he was a scriptwriter and producer for 'Radio Newsreel'), and in 1949 became London correspondent for a Canadian news magazine, The Ensign. . In 1953 he was asked to write the authorised biography of his RAF friend and fellow Catholic, Leonard Cheshire VC. This was published as No passing glory in 1955 and proved a major commercial success. Andrew Boyle died on 22 April 1991. He was twice married: first, in 1943 to Christina Galvin, who died in 1984, by whom he had a son and a daughter; and second, in 1986 to a former BBC colleague, Eleanor Ransome.