Robert Julian Yeatman
British humorist (1897-1968)
Robert Julian Yeatman (15 July 1897 – 13 July 1968) was a British humorist who wrote for Punch. He is best known for the book 1066 and All That, a tongue-in-cheek guide to "all the history you can remember", which he wrote with W. C. Sellar in 1930.
Yeatman was born in Chelsea, London. He spent some of his early years in Porto, the principal city and port of northern Portugal, where his father worked as a port wine merchant, a family business connected with Taylor's Port. From 1911 he was educated at Marlborough College. In World War I he was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery. Serving in France, he won the Military Cross and was severely wounded. After the war he attended Oriel College, Oxford, where he met Sellar. Yeatman then worked as a journalist before becoming advertising manager for Kodak Ltd.
When asked to convert his BA from Oxford into an MA, Yeatman could not find the fee owing to debt, and hence he is recorded in 1066 and All That as "Failed M.A., etc.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Robert Julian Yeatman” is british humorist (1897-1968). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Robert, Julian and Yeatman, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “british humorist (1897-1968)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7273733. VIAF identifies the subject as 29918519. The Library of Congress control number is nr94034863. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1897, 1968, 1066 and 1930.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Robert Julian Yeatman”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Robert Julian Yeatman primary sources, Robert Julian Yeatman archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Robert Julian Yeatman”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Robert Julian Yeatman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.