Frederick Spencer Chapman was born in 1907. He read English and History at Cambridge. Taking part in expeditions to Greenland and to Himalaya, Chapman made the first ascent of Chomolhari, in 1937. He was a housemaster at Gordonstoun when war broke out in 1939. After Dunkirk, he was assigned to a Special Training Centre as a commando instructor. In September 1941 he was posted to Malaya to help organise local resistance against the impending Japanese invasion. It was the beginning of his career as a truly outstanding strategist of guerilla warfare. His four thrilling, danger-filled years spent in the jungle with the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army are the theme of The Jungle is Neutral. .At the end of the war, he was a Civil Affairs Officer in Malaya until he was demobbed in 1946. He then returned to educational work - he was the Organising Secretary of the Outward Bound Trust for a year before taking up teaching again as a headmaster. He died in 1971