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THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 1

The Telegraph INSIDE THE Sunday, March 2, 2014 FIRST WORLD WAR PART SEVEN: THE CULTURAL FRONT Sponsored by

A MONTHLY 12-PART ANTHONY NIGEL JONES PATRICK SERIES TO MARK RICHARDS In ‘The Dead-Beat’ BISHOP THE WAR’S CENTENARY The importance of reveals 12 key works that Siegfried Sassoon his own fears define the war © IWM (Q 10286) 2 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 3

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A POETS’ WAR Anthony Richards explains how Siegfried Sassoon and others transformed literature’s landscape. P4-5

PAINTINGS, MUSIC AND BOOKS Patrick Bishop selects 12 key works by artists, composers and writers who fought on the front. he First World War saw the P6-8

arrival of a new type of WAR POEM middle-class, well- Nigel Jones analyses Wilfred Owen’s ‘The educated soldier who could Dead-Beat’. ablyT and graphically chronicle his P9 experiences on the battlefield Q-SHIP HERO through music, literature or painting. Michael Ashcroft tells the story of Ernest It was a conflict linked like no other Herbert Pitcher VC. to the poetry and literature of its age, P10 writes ’s LETTERS HOME Second Lieutenant Anthony Richards, telling of the Bernard Wilfrid Long influential role of Siegfried and his ventures into no-man’s-land Sassoon over his contemporaries. P12 Sassoon, like fellow poets Robert MUSIC OF WAR Graves and Charles Sorley, Ralph Vaughan Williams experienced trench warfare first- didn’t have to join up, but he did and it deeply hand – and the grittily realistic works affected his composing, says Zoe Dare Hall. of such writers marked a distinct P14-15 shift away from old-guard writers POST BOX who romanticised war. A call to stop the rum Also, we look at key works of ration that inspired a poem, and the Lancashire literature, art and music written by coal miner and soldier those who fought for their country who became a well-known artist in Australia. and shaped the artistic climate that P14-15 was to follow. Among them was the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, Pastoral Symphony IWM PODCAST whose was Hear IWM’s Voices of the written as a direct response to the First World War podcasts at www.1914.org/ death he saw as a stretcher-bearer. podcasts Many other soldiers felt inspired, and compelled, to commit their artistic endeavours to Left: American soldiers paper, as we see in this listen to a fellow issue’s letters sent to doughboy playing the organ inside a ruined us by readers. Please church in Exermont, France, in the Argonne keep them coming. region, . Zoe Dare Hall Front cover: British soldiers at Arras Series editor Y Cathedral, writing on

GETT stones in March 1918

THE SPONSOR to remember those Heroes, George Cross prestigious award for for the past four decades, Union (IDU) and one of include being Vice Patron Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC who gave their lives in Heroes and Heroes of courage not in the face of launching, buying, building Britain’s leading experts of the Intelligence Corps the conflict. the Skies. In each of the the enemy. He currently and selling companies — on polling. Museum, a Trustee of Inside the First World Lord Ashcroft has 12 supplements, Lord owns 14 GCs. Lord both private and public — Lord Ashcroft has Imperial War Museum, War, a 12-part series, established himself as a Ashcroft tells the Ashcroft’s VC and GC in Britain and overseas. donated several millions an Ambassador for is sponsored by Lord champion of bravery, incredible stories behind collections are on display He is a former of pounds to charities SkillForce and a Trustee Ashcroft KCMG PC, building up the world’s First World War VCs from in a gallery that bears his Treasurer and Deputy and good causes. of the Cleveland Clinic an international largest collection of his collection. name at IWM London, Chairman of the He founded in the US. businessman, Victoria Crosses (VCs), Lord Ashcroft along with VCs and GCs in Conservative Party. In Crimestoppers (then the philanthropist and Britain and the purchased his first VC in the care of the museum. September 2012, he was Community Action Trust) ~For information about military historian. Lord Commonwealth’s most 1986 and currently owns The gallery, built with a appointed a member of in 1988. the Lord Ashcroft Gallery, Ashcroft is sponsoring prestigious award for more than 180 of the £5 million donation from the Privy Council and was He is the founder of visit www.iwm.org.uk/ the monthly supplements courage in the face of the decorations. Three years Lord Ashcroft, was made the Government’s the Ashcroft Technology heroes. For information because he wants to enemy. He has also ago, he began collecting opened by HRH The Special Representative Academy and Chancellor on Lord Ashcroft, visit promote a greater written four books on George Crosses (GCs), Princess Royal in 2010. for Veterans’ Transition. of Anglia Ruskin www.lordashcroft.com understanding of the bravery: Britain and the Lord Ashcroft has been a He is Treasurer of the University. His numerous Follow him on Twitter: First World War and Heroes, Special Forces Commonwealth’s most successful entrepreneur International Democratic other charity roles @LordAshcroft 4 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

THE WAR POETS

o conflict has ever been so closely After convalescing from a riding injury, Sassoon linked with the poetry and literature of applied for a commission and was appointed 2nd its age than the First World War. When Lieutenant in the in May 1915. we consider the writers who emerged How poetry Six months later, he joined the 1st Battalion in from this era, one of the most France, where he would not only experience trench prominentN is Siegfried Sassoon. His poetry is warfare, but also meet a fellow poet with whom his remembered for the satirical edge of its criticism of life would be inextricably linked. the military high command and disdain for Despite his higher rank, Captain unquestioning patriotism, with the anger and reflected the was younger than Sassoon by nine years and had indignation present in much of his verse characteristic already gained considerable front-line experience of many men who served in the trenches. with the 1st Royal Welch Fusiliers, having been on He also won acclaim for his biographical prose, active service in France since April 1915. describing military service on the Western Front in When Sassoon met Graves for the first time in the his Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. He served with true face of war company mess, the two officers soon discovered a distinction in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. But Sassoon’s shared love of literature. Sassoon offered his opinion influence extended far beyond his own work, with his on the poetry that Graves was preparing for journey through the conflict and the friendships he publication; initially he disliked what he regarded as made reflecting the wider evolution of poetry and the gritty realism of Graves’s work in comparison literature associated with the First World War. with his own more traditional poetic imagery and Siegfried Loraine Sassoon was born on September language. In return, Graves introduced Sassoon to 8, 1886. His parents separated when he was four and the poems of Charles Sorley, an officer who had been his early life was spent with his mother in Kent. killed during the battle of Loos. Sorley’s verse, both Educated at Marlborough, he read history at unsentimental and critical of “jingoism”, would Cambridge but left in 1907 without a degree and greatly influence both men. Sassoon and Graves spent the next few years living off a private income shared a public school background and a love of inherited after his father’s death, which allowed him sport (Graves was a boxer), were both homosexual to live modestly while indulging his passions of and, perhaps most notably, had a joint aspiration to cricket, fox-hunting and romantic poetry. Pќђѡ Sіђєѓџіђё SюѠѠќќћ ѤюѠ ќћђ ќѓ establish themselves as published poets. Along with many others, Sassoon was affected by њюћѦ Ѥѕќ ѡџюћѠѓќџњђё љіѡђџюѡѢџђ’Ѡ The beginning of Sassoon’s friendship with Graves patriotic fervour at the outbreak of war and enlisted was also marked by his introduction in 1915 to the immediately as a trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry. љюћёѠѐюѝђ, ѠюѦѠ AћѡѕќћѦ RіѐѕюџёѠ true horrors of the First World War. Front-line service THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 5

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Sassoon to autograph his copy of the recently published The Old Huntsman and Other Poems. Sassoon obliged and agreed to meet Owen again in order to look through his own draft poetry, which Sassoon felt showed promise. He advised Owen to “sweat your guts out” on further poems. What began as hero worship developed over the following weeks into a firm friendship, with Sassoon inspiring Owen who, in a letter to his mother, described the older poet as “the greatest friend I have”. Sassoon proved a profound influence on Owen’s poetry and offered amendments to many of his most famous works such as “” (a title suggested by Sassoon). The graphic language and direct questioning used by Sassoon was adopted by Owen, who arguably surpassed his mentor in both style and effect. After leaving , both officers continued to correspond until Owen’s death in action seven days before the Armistice. The period of Sassoon’s convalescence in late 1917 saw him become something of a celebrity among the artistic crowd in London. However, the greatest critical admiration that year was reserved for Robert Nichols’s collection Ardours and Endurances. Sassoon met Nichols at a poetry reading on November 15,

SюѠѠќќћ ѕђљѝђё ѝџќњќѡђ ѡѕђ ѤќџјѠ ќѓ ѝќђѡѠ Ѥѕќ ѓюіљђё ѡќ ѠѢџѣіѣђ ѡѕђ Ѥюџ

1917, where they shared a mutual admiration for Sorley. Nichols’s service as an artillery officer at the front had been relatively brief before he was invalided out suffering from , which may have distanced him from the still-serving Sassoon, but they became firm friends. Both men had taken their wartime trauma and anger as inspiration for their poetry and by the end of the war, Sassoon, together with Graves, Nichols and other contemporaries, were regarded as the leading poets of the age. Peace meant the anger and satire which characterised Sassoon’s writing was diluted and he returned to the pre-war world in a series of biographies, starting with Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man in 1928. The events of the whole war could now be portrayed within a wider context, and the memoirs, novels and verse of Sassoon and others reflected an increased public antipathy to war and the growth of pacifist organisations. Appearing the same year was Undertones of War, a memoir written by a former infantry officer, . Blunden’s background was not dissimilar to that of Sassoon: an idyllic childhood in Kent before leaving school with a scholarship to in July 1915; commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment and arriving in France in early 1916, he too won the . Robert Graves’s Goodbye To All That followed in 1929, although the self-confessed sensationalist

© IWM (HU 5056); (Q 4210); 101783); CORBIS nature of the memoir and looseness with historical truth led many of Graves’s contemporaries, notably Sassoon and Blunden, to decry it as an unfaithful was significantly different from the warfare expected fatal, a shoulder wound led to Sassoon’s evacuation depiction of events. Testament of Youth (1933), written by many young men brought up on Victorian tales of for convalescence in England in April 1917. by the former VAD nurse Vera Brittain, was heavily dashing military heroes and masculine bravery and Back in Blighty, Sassoon’s bitterness became even influenced by these earlier memoirs and reflected honour characterised by well-organised cavalry more obvious; he had fully expected to die in the upon the deaths of the author’s fiancé Roland charges and gleaming uniforms. trenches but had returned home a military hero – Leighton, her brother and other close friends. The reality of the Western Front for the average something he never expected or wanted. This Sassoon’s influence extended to helping promote soldier could not have been more different. “survivor’s guilt” was instrumental in influencing his the work of poets who had failed to survive the war Purposeful activity with a clear objective was replaced decision on June 15, 1917, to make a formal statement and witness the wider appreciation of their verse. He by confusion and apparent chaos, cowering in muddy in wilful defiance of military authority, questioning would prove instrumental in the posthumous trenches for no obvious reason other than to avoid the Government’s motives for continuing the war publication of Owen’s collected poetry in 1920, and death, with death itself seldom heroic but rather and refusing to fight further. that of Isaac Rosenberg in 1937. While Sassoon random and deeply unpleasant. Awakened by this Graves, also in England serving as a military shared with Rosenberg the literary patron Eddie first taste of trench warfare and affected by the instructor, supported a medical board’s decision to Marsh, they never met before Rosenberg’s death in appalling conditions and constant danger, Sassoon’s classify Sassoon as suffering from “shell shock”. On action on April 1, 1918. Sassoon’s foreword to poetry became much harder in both language and July 23 he arrived at Craiglockhart War Hospital, near Rosenberg’s Collected Works revealed that he hoped tone, with his earlier romantic verse forgotten in , far enough away from London to remove to gain for him “the full recognition of his genius favour of the ugly reality he was now experiencing. the troublesome poet from public attention. which has hitherto been delayed”. By the Sixties, The death of his brother Hamo at Gallipoli was Much has been written of the famous meeting at both Rosenberg and Owen had emerged as among another important factor in changing Sassoon’s Craiglockhart on August 18, 1917, of Sassoon and the most important of all the war poets. outlook, although the death in 1916 of David Thomas, Wilfred Owen. An aspiring poet influenced by the The era of the First World War had seen a distinctive a fellow officer with whom Sassoon had developed a work of Keats, Owen had been serving as a subaltern POETS TOGETHER mood change among writers. Inspired by first-hand deep affection, had an enormous effect on him and with the 2nd Manchester Regiment in France since Clockwise from top left: experience of the trenches, poets such as Sassoon changed both his and Graves’s attitude to the war. December 1916, and had suffered several particularly Siegfried with his brother distinguished themselves from the “old guard” of The futility and bitterness at the fighting felt by bad instances of being bombarded while in flooded Hamo and other students Conan Doyle, Kipling and Hardy who had traditionally Sassoon was typical of those who had been exposed dugouts. In March 1917 he fell into a collapsed cellar at Cambridge; a soldier portrayed war in a lyrical, romantic way. The nature to the brutality of trench warfare. The anger and and suffered concussion for some time before being offers a helping hand to of war itself had changed dramatically and it was this despair instilled in him by Thomas’s death led rescued, while the following month he was blown off another as he carries a gritty realism which Sassoon and his contemporaries Sassoon to become increasingly unconcerned with his feet by a shell explosion. Beginning to develop wounded comrade across embraced and which would directly influence future personal welfare, earning him the nickname “Mad signs of nervous exhaustion, Owen was evacuated a trench, the Battle of literature and poetry of the 20th century. Jack” and, ultimately, the Military Cross for home for treatment at the beginning of May. Ginchy, 1916; Robert conspicuous gallantry. Before further heroics proved Timidly visiting his hospital room, Owen asked Graves; Wilfred Owen ~Anthony Richards is the IWM’s head of documents 6 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

PERCEPTIONS OF WAR THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 7

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Four artists, writers and composers whose work defined the war

he First World War was the first conflict to spawn a wealth of artistic output from those who fought on its battlefields. The Somme alone saw more writers take part than any other battle in history, including T Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, JRR Tolkien and Edmund Blunden. There, and on other fighting fronts, a new breed of well-educated soldier vividly chronicled their first-hand experiences through words, art and music. Some were killed in action, bright lights of their generation such as the composer George Butterworth – another Somme casualty – whose creative promise would never be fulfilled. The “luckier” ones were left forever with a survivor’s guilt that darkly permeated their future work. All leave an invaluable legacy, whether through poetry, memoirs, fiction or art, that helps future generations to understand the reality of war. Here, Patrick Bishop selects four artists, composers and writers (and their key works) who experienced the conflict first-hand and whose works have not only come to define the war; they changed what came after.

A RTISTS

Oѡѡќ Dіѥ: Tџђћѐѕ Wюџѓюџђ (1932) Dix was a 23-year-old art student in Dresden when the war by his 1932 painting Trench Warfare (below), whose macabre broke out and he enlisted enthusiastically in the German imagery and charnel-house palette evoke a medieval Army. He fought as a machine-gunner on the Eastern and atmosphere of suffering and evil. Dix was determined to Western fronts, took part in the Battle of the Somme, won the confront the public with the reality of the war, but his honesty Iron Cross and left the trenches only after being shot in the was unwelcome and the picture caused an outcry when first neck a few months before hostilities ended. His experiences shown in Cologne. The “unpatriotic” message of pointlessness were to haunt him for the rest of his life and inform some of was not lost on the Nazis, who included it in their 1937 his darkest and most brilliant work. The results are exemplified exhibition of degenerate art.

PюѢљ NюѠѕ: Wђ Aџђ Mюјіћє ю NђѤ Wќџљё (1918) No human figure inhabits this 1918 landscape (left). Nash an accident but returned that autumn as an official war artist. seems to be saying that they are all gone, subsumed in the His work did little to popularise the cause. As he declared in a churned, polluted earth, stagnant water and shattered tree letter to his wife, he was “no longer an artist, interested and stumps, which the rising sun will never restore to life. curious”, there to observe and record, but a “messenger” bent Nash was a public schoolboy, the son of a successful on bearing witness to the horrors of trench life. He succeeded London lawyer. In 1914 he was at the Slade School of Art, one triumphantly. Over the years, the flat colours and bold shapes of a brilliant batch of students that included Stanley Spencer, of his wartime paintings have embedded themselves in our Ben Nicholson and CRW Nevinson. He volunteered first for the consciousness. When the next war broke out, Nash served Artists Rifles and arrived as a subaltern on the Western Front once again as an official artist, creating images that are in February 1917. He was sent home after injuring himself in perhaps less bleak but equally unforgettable. © IWM (ART.IWM ART 1146); STAATLICHE KUNSTAMMLUNGEN DRESDEN, GERMANY/BRIDGEMAN LIBRARY 8 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

PERCEPTIONS OF WAR

WѦћёѕюњ LђѤіѠ: A BюѡѡђџѦ Sѕђљљђё (1919) Wyndham Lewis perhaps knew more than any of his artistic operating from exposed forward observation posts to call contemporaries about the business of war. down fire on the enemy. He was in his thirties when the conflict began; and had A Battery Shelled (above) is a mysterious construct. A already established himself as a leading light of the avant garde group of soldiers, one of them apparently Lewis, look out with as the founder of the cubism-inspired Vorticist school and the seeming indifference over a sterile landscape of bunkers and author of its short-lived but hugely influential journal, Blast. geometric trench lines peopled by robotic stick men. As an gunnery officer, he was intimately engaged in the Vorticism did not survive the war and subsequently Lewis artillery duels that did most of the killing on the Western Front. applied his questing energy to writing and criticism, much of As well as commanding a battery, he acted as spotter, it contentious.

COMPOSERS

French music. The German Gђќџєђ military assault would also BѢѡѡђџѤќџѡѕ be a symbolic attack on the “mediocre kitschiness” of The Banks of Green the likes of Ravel. The Willow (1913) mood did not last long. Shot through the head by Drafted into the Austrian a sniper on the Somme in Army at 42, Schoenberg August 1916, Butterworth resented the disruption to is a symbol of the budding his work, which was talent that was burned up already well advanced on in the holocaust of the war. its revolutionary journey Born into the Victorian one of France’s leading away from traditional in Salonika. His most upper-middle classes, he composers when the war tonality and musical famous work, The Planets, went to Eton and Trinity began through such works organisation. Variations for was written in 1914 before College, Cambridge, and as the score for Daphnis et Orchestra produced a the war had made its was a friend of Ralph Chloé, written for storm of controversy when cataclysmic impact, but it Vaughan Williams. He Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. premiered by the Berlin included a portrayal of the made his name with He hoped to do his bit for Philharmonic under the reality of warfare in Mars settings of AE Housman’s his country as an aviator, baton of Wilhelm and became a huge A Shropshire Lad and an but was considered too old Furtwängler in December international success after interpretation of a folk (39) and too short (5ft 1928. With the arrival of the First World War. On his song, The Banks of Green 3ins). Instead, he served as the Nazis in power, return from Salonica, he Willow — often played a driver on the Verdun Schoenberg’s Jewishness wrote his choral work, Ode during commemoration front. The appalling toll that and the perceived to Death, a contemplation ceremonies on the Somme. the war took of French “decadence” of his music on the waste and futility of This “idyll” summons up a manhood hit everyone and forced him to move to war, inspired by a Walt prelapsarian image of the Ravel was no exception. He America, where he settled Whitman poem. English countryside, memorialised six of his in Los Angeles and taught evoking birdsong, a stream dead friends in Le tombeau at American universities. dimpled by rising trout and de Couperin, a suite for He died there in 1951. WRITERS the scent of fresh-cut hay. solo piano in six movements. The final part is dedicated to the husband GѢѠѡюѣ HќљѠѡ Under Fire was based on Hanoverian Regiment on to make him a natural of his favourite pianist, Ode to Death (1918-19) three months of combat the Western Front in April supporter of Hitler and Marguerite Long. Before the war, the English and gave an early view of 1915. By the end, he had Nazism. Yet he kept his composer Gustav Holst the reality of life in the been wounded at least distance from them and, was a scholar at the Royal trenches. Subtitled “the seven times and won the despite his fierce Aџћќљё College of Music, a story of a squad”, it Iron Cross and the Pour le nationalism and anti- Sѐѕќђћяђџє professional musician and describes a world of Mérite (Blue Max). Jünger’s democratic convictions, teacher. Aged 40 when tangled wire, dank artistic response to combat defied easy categorisation. Variations for Orchestra war broke out, he was earthworks and random was unusual. Soldiering His work is an eloquent and (1926-28) rejected as unfit for military death in which the fighters was “a good and strenuous stylish expression of a Initially, at least, the brilliant service and felt frustrated live surrounded by the life”. Far from a ghastly rarely acknowledged truth Austrian-born composer that friends and family stinking corpses of their ordeal, he celebrates a — war was not hell for Few of his comrades and musical theorist saw were doing their bit, comrades. After his quasi-mystical experience everyone. For some it was knew of his musical the war as an opportunity including his wife, who Hђћџі discharge in 1917, and “an incomparable thrilling and fulfilling, the accomplishments. He was to overthrow what he became an ambulance Barbusse became a schooling of the heart”. high point of their thought of instead as an regarded as the bourgeois driver, and his close friend BюџяѢѠѠђ vigorous anti-war These conclusions reached existence. He died aged outstandingly brave soldier. decadence of established Ralph Vaughan Williams, Under Fire (1916) campaigner. He also in Storm of Steel seemed 102, garlanded with By the time of his death on active service in France. The son of a French father adopted communism and, honours. aged 31, he had been But in the final months of and an English mother, after visiting Moscow in mentioned in dispatches war, Holst had his chance Barbusse had a minor 1918, married a Russian, Vђџю Bџіѡѡюіћ and won the Military Cross. to serve — as a volunteer reputation as a poet and becoming an uncritical working with British troops novelist when the war admirer of the Soviet Union Testament of Youth in Europe awaiting began. He joined the and Joseph Stalin. (1933) MюѢџіѐђ demobilisation. Having French Army, serving until The consequences of the Rюѣђљ been told his surname, Von the end of 1915, when he slaughter of their menfolk Holst, looked too Germanic, was moved to a clerical job EџћѠѡ Jҿћєђџ on the lives of the women Le tombeau de Couperin he changed it by deed poll after his health collapsed. Storm of Steel (1920) were immense. Vera (1914-17) to Holst and became the His grimly realistic, Prix Jünger first saw action as a Brittain, 20 years old and a Ravel was established as YMCA’s musical organiser Goncourt-winning novel 20-year-old with the 73rd middle-class bluestocking THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 9

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Dюѣіё Bќњяђџє: SюѝѝђџѠ юѡ Wќџј WAR POEM (1918-19)

Bomberg was the son of working-class Polish- ‘The Dead-Beat’: a reflection of Jewish immigrant parents and one of the most precocious talents of his Wilfred Owen’s own despair generation. He was another product of the pre- war Slade but left after disagreements with the surgeon-turned-teacher Henry Tonks, the school’s he life and work of Wilfred Owen, the sustained poetic production as he recovered his presiding genius who iconic poet of protest and pity of the Great nerves, wrote the dense, complex but painfully disapproved of his avant- T War, is too well-known to need much humane verse which has made him the most re- garde approach. Bomberg introduction. Of Welsh descent, Owen grew up in nowned of all the war poets. drew inspiration from the Shropshire Marches, the eldest son of a minor Gay like Sassoon, he also felt compelled to re- cubism, futurism and railway official and an over-doting mother. turn to the trenches to be with the men he com- Vorticism, employing an Sensitive and delicate, he covertly rejected his manded. Despite his passionate pacifism, in his angular, machine-age mother’s evangelical Christianity and escaped to second stint at the front Owen proved a coura- aesthetic. France, where the outbreak of war found him geous, even ferocious, soldier, winning an MC for He joined the Royal tutoring in a French family near Bordeaux. turning a captured machine gun on the enemy. Engineers in 1915 and his Returning to Britain in 1915, he enlisted and was Poignantly, he was killed just a week before the first-hand experience of the posted as a junior officer to the Somme in 1917. Armistice, on November 4, 1918, leading his men most mechanised war in A vicious “blooding” in no-man’s-land (record- in the sort of suicidal attack he had implicitly history was to have a ed in his poem “The Sentry”) and protested about in his incompara- profound effect on his other horrors induced a break- ble poetry. artistic development. By down for which he was treated at “The Dead-Beat”, one of Owen’s the time he painted this Craiglockhart hospital, Edinburgh. less well-known poems, was based picture of Canadian Here, in the decisive breakthrough on a real incident he had witnessed tunnellers burrowing under of his literary life, he sought out in France, and was the first he Hill 50 at Saint Eloi, south and was patronised by Siegfried wrote after meeting his mentor east of , he was Sassoon, and accepted his hero’s Sassoon at Craiglockhart. The moving back to the more suggested changes and improve- poem therefore has a strong naturalistic style that he ments to his first “war poems”. Sassoonian influence, with a would employ for the rest Soon, however, Owen surpassed directness and bitterness untypical of his working life. Sassoon in depth and technical of Owen’s later and more subtle Bomberg lost his brother virtuosity, and in a year of work. and his friend, the poet Isaac Rosenberg, to the war. His subsequent preoccupation with the As an officer, Owen colours and shapes of carried a revolver. nature can be seen as a Ironically he is response to his own threatening with his harrowing experiences. THE DEAD-BEAT gun a man suffering what he himself would Hђ ёџќѝѝђё, – њќџђ ѠѢљљђћљѦ ѡѕюћ ѤђюџіљѦ, suffer: what was then called “shell shock” or LюѦ ѠѡѢѝіё љіјђ ю ѐќё, ѕђюѣѦ љіјђ њђюѡ, “neurasthenia”, which Aћё ћќћђ ќѓ ѢѠ ѐќѢљё јіѐј ѕіњ ѡќ ѕіѠ ѓђђѡ; we call “post-combat stress disorder”. JѢѠѡ яљіћјђё юѡ њѦ џђѣќљѣђџ, яљђюџіљѦ; – Dіёћ’ѡ юѝѝђюџ ѡќ јћќѤ ю Ѥюџ ѤюѠ ќћ, Oџ Ѡђђ ѡѕђ яљюѠѡђё ѡџђћѐѕ юѡ Ѥѕіѐѕ ѕђ Ѡѡюџђё. A double meaning: a ‘I’љљ ёќ ‘ђњ іћ,’ ѕђ Ѥѕіћђё, ‘Iѓ ѡѕіѠ ѕюћё’Ѡ Ѡѝюџђё, trench could be literally © IWM (ART.IWM ART 2747); 2708); ALAMY; GETTY; (Q 101783) ‘I’љљ њѢџёђџ ѡѕђњ, I Ѥіљљ.’ blasted by shellfire, or just cursed, as in ”this blasted toothache”. A љќѤ ѣќіѐђ Ѡюіё, ‘Iѡ’Ѡ BљієѕѡѦ, ѝ’џюѝѠ, ѕђ ѠђђѠ; ѕіѠ ѝљѢѐј’Ѡ юљљ єќћђ, classic that resonated may stem from Dџђюњіћє ќѓ юљљ ѡѕђ ѣюљіюћѡ, ѡѕюѡ юџђћ’ѡ ёђюё: A touch of misogyny? down the rest of the 20th Remarque’s success in Owen’s poetry has century. Despite her fame universalising the soldiers’ Bќљё ѢћѐљђѠ, Ѡњіљіћє њіћіѠѡђџіюљљѦ; several resentful and success, she never experience — that the war MюѦяђ ѕіѠ яџюѣђ ѦќѢћє Ѥіѓђ, єђѡѡіћє ѕђџ ѓѢћ references to women’s quite escaped from the was the same for all who sexuality, far from the shadows of the war. When fought. It also articulated Iћ Ѡќњђ ћђѤ ѕќњђ, іњѝџќѣђё њюѡђџіюљљѦ. suffering of men in the she died in 1970, her ashes the alienation felt by trenches. were scattered on her combatants from the Iѡ’Ѡ ћќѡ ѡѕђѠђ ѠѡіѓѓѠ ѕюѣђ ѐџюѧђё ѕіњ; ћќџ ѡѕђ HѢћ.’ brother’s grave in Italy. societies they were supposedly defending. Eџіѐѕ Mюџію The Nazis burned the book Wђ Ѡђћѡ ѕіњ ёќѤћ юѡ љюѠѡ, ќѢѡ ќѓ ѡѕђ ѤюѦ. The poem’s central and forced Remarque into UћѤќѢћёђё; – ѠѡќѢѡ љюё, ѡќќ, яђѓќџђ ѡѕюѡ Ѡѡџюѓђ. tenet is about the when the war began, lost RђњюџўѢђ exile. Unable to lay hands unsympathetic military her brother, three close on him, they turned on his Mюљіћєђџіћєӓ Sѡџђѡѐѕђџ-яђюџђџѠ Ѥіћјђё, ‘Nќѡ ѕюљѓӔ’ attitude to mental male friends and the man All Quiet on the Western sister, Elfriede, who was breakdown under the she loved, Roland Leighton, Front (1929) found guilty of defeatism stress of war, which who died in France in Remarque said his aim in and put to death in 1943. Nђѥѡ ёюѦ I ѕђюџё ѡѕђ Dќѐ’Ѡ Ѥђљљ-ѤѕіѠјіђё љюѢєѕ: was often seen as December 1915. Brittain, All Quiet on the Western Tѕюѡ ѠѐѢњ ѦќѢ Ѡђћѡ љюѠѡ ћієѕѡ Ѡќќћ ёіђё. HќќџюѦӔ’ cowardice or shirking. who worked as a Voluntary Front was “simply to tell of Owen’s presence at Aid Detachment nurse in a generation of men who, First coined by British troops in India, “Blighty” Craiglockhart meant London, Malta and France, even though they may means Britain, the longed-for homeland there were doubts described the impact on her have escaped shells, were representing safety from the war. A non-lethal about his own “moral life in a cathartic memoir, destroyed by the war”. wound was called “a Blighty one”, meaning it fibre”; he is actually Testament of Youth. Its Based on his experiences necessitated going home. writing about himself. message was of grief and in Flanders in 1917, it loss as she struggled to became an international remake the life she had bestseller and was made imagined for herself before into an Oscar-winning film. disaster struck. It became a Its extraordinary appeal Commentary by historian and biographer Nigel Jones, who leads tours in the footsteps of the WW1 poets 10 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

VC BRAVERY He stood by his gun as shells started major fires

Commander Gordon Campbell, being promoted to submarine. He later wrote: “To cold-bloodedly leave Mіѐѕюђљ AѠѕѐџќѓѡ Commander. On February 17, 1917, to the west of the gun’s crew to their fate seemed awful, and the ќћ EџћђѠѡ Hђџяђџѡ Ireland, Farnborough accounted for her second names of each of them flashed through my mind, but “kill”, U-83, which was sunk with the loss of all our duty was to sink the submarine. By losing a few Pіѡѐѕђџ VC hands bar an officer and one seaman. men we might save thousands not only of lives but of The following month, Pitcher and most of the rest ships and tons of the nation’s requirements. I of Q-5’s crew elected to follow Commander decided to wait.” The explosion on Dunraven came s the son of a coastguard and having Campbell, who by this point had already been at 12.58pm, before the U-boat could be fired upon. It been born in the Cornish harbour awarded the VC, to his next Q-ship: another former blew out the stern of the ship and propelled the four- village of Mullion, Ernest Herbert collier which was renamed Pargust. She had inch gun and its crew into the air. The gun landed on Pitcher’s chosen profession would not improved equipment and armaments, including a the well deck and one man was thrown into the sea, have surprised anyone. Pitcher, who four-inch gun, and went to sea in May, but she was while Pitcher and another crewman landed on mock Awas born on New Year’s Eve, 1888, joined the Royal torpedoed a month later by Kapitänleutnant Rose’s railway trucks made of wood and canvas, which Navy, aged just 14 and, by the outbreak of the First UC-29. The decoy “panic party” left the ship and cushioned their falls and saved their lives. World War, he was serving in the super-dreadnought, when the U-boat surfaced the remaining crew fired As UC-71 crash-dived, two shots were fired at her HMS King George V. The following year, he 38 shells at it, causing it to blow up and sink. Pargust, but without any telling effect. Pitcher and the other volunteered for service in the expanding fleet of which had been damaged in the attack, was towed wounded men were now removed to the cabins, secret “Q-ships”, at one stage Britain’s only “answer” into a nearby port the next day but her crew survived where they stayed for the rest of the action with to the U-boats, German the attack. Under the 13th rule of “shells exploding all around them”. As Campbell submarines that were causing the VC’s Royal Warrant, an officer was preparing a torpedo attack, Dunraven was such terrible damage to the and a rating were each awarded shelled behind the engine room. Then the U-boat Allies’ merchant fleets. the VC on behalf of the whole resurfaced and for 20 minutes shelled the Q-ship Throughout the first two years crew. Other decorations were until diving again at 2.50pm. Campbell responded by of the war the Royal Navy was also awarded including to firing two torpedoes. Both missed but, fortunately for unable to halt the massive loss Commander Campbell, who Dunraven’s crew, the U-boat had now exhausted its and damage to merchant ships received a bar to the own supply of torpedoes and fled the scene. A British caused by the U-boats. Depth Distinguished Service Order destroyer, Christopher, towed the battered Q-ship charges, mined nets, deep (DSO) that he had won for his towards Plymouth but, as the weather deteriorated, minefields, hunter destroyers second “kill”, and to Pitcher, who she sank at 3am. and special patrols of submarines was awarded one of eight A list of awards for the bravery of the Dunraven were among the tactics used to Distinguished Service Medals crew was announced in the London Gazette on target the U-boats but all proved (DSMs). November 2, 1917. No fewer than 41 members of the to be largely ineffective. In his Most of Pargust’s crew now crew received decorations and a further 14 were book VCs of the First World War: followed Campbell on to mentioned in dispatches. The VC assigned specifically The Naval VCs, Stephen Snelling Dunraven. At 10.58am on August to the gun crew was awarded to Pitcher after a ballot spelled out the scale of the 8, 1917, their new ship, disguised to see who should receive it. Furthermore, a second problem: “In six months [during as a British merchant vessel, was VC – a personal award – was made to the ship’s First 1916] the monthly losses of zigzagging some 130 miles off Lieutenant, Charles Bonner. In a letter to Campbell, British and foreign vessels had Ushant in the Bay of Biscay when the ship’s commander, who was awarded a second more than trebled to 368,521 a U-boat was sighted on the bar to his DSO, the American Admiral W S Sims tons. By contrast, U-boat losses horizon. Dunraven maintained wrote: “I know nothing finer in naval history than the during the whole of 1916 amounted to just 25, of her course as the U-boat, UC-71, closed. At 11.17am, conduct of the after-gun crew.” which five were due to accidents and a further four to the enemy submarine dived, then resurfaced 5,000 The heroic action involving Dunraven was a action by our Russian ally. The unpalatable truth was yards away on the starboard quarter. The U-boat turning point. Both sides came to an unofficial that the Royal Navy was not merely failing to check opened fire at 11.43am and Campbell, acting in the agreement that there was a stalemate in this form of the submarine campaign, it was actually in danger of manner of a panicking merchant captain, sent out a warfare and, eventually, the Q-service was wound losing it, and with it, the war itself.” distress signal giving the ship’s position. He also down. Pitcher, who always sported a dark, bushy As U-boat numbers steadily increased, they fired off some token rounds from the ship’s little beard, received the gun crew’s VC from George V at became the supreme maritime threat to Britain’s two-and-a-half-pounder gun, as if it were the only Buckingham Palace on December 5, 1917. He was survival. To preserve costly torpedoes and allow weapon he possessed. The U-boat closed again and, later awarded the French Médaille Militaire for the them to plunder their target’s valuables, U-boats when a torpedo almost hit Dunraven, the crew action, on top of the Croix de Guerre that he already would often surface close to a merchant ship, bring generated a cloud of steam to simulate boiler trouble. held. After the First World War, Pitcher did his best to it under fire from their deck-mounted gun and force At the same time, Campbell dispatched a “panic ensure that his heroic legacy on Dunraven lived on the soft target to surrender. The merchant crew party” to make it look as if the ship – he eventually named both his would then leave their ship to the German was being abandoned. daughter and his house after the ship. submariners, who would take any valuables that took The submarine now scored three On August 1, 1920, Pitcher was their fancy before scuttling it. The Q-ship was a quick hits on Dunraven’s poop. The HEROIC STORIES promoted to chief petty officer; seven gunship disguised to look like a merchant ship and first detonated a depth charge that }Lord Ashcroft years later he retired from the Royal developed to combat this practice. As soon as the wounded three men and cut KCMG PC is a Tory Navy after a quarter of a century’s U-boat surfaced to collect its booty, the ship’s gun communications between Pitcher, the peer, businessman, service. He then worked in Swanage, would be revealed and it would try to blow the captain of the four-inch gun crew, and philanthropist and Dorset, as a woodwork teacher in a U-boat out of the water. Pitcher served on the the bridge. However, Pitcher’s team author. The story of boys’ preparatory school. For a time, ex-collier Loderer, also known as HMS Farnborough, decided not to move, as leaving their Ernest Pitcher’s life he also ran a pub, the Royal Oak in or Q-5. position would have given the game and career appears in nearby Herston. However, after the Loderer, which had been built in 1904, was fitted away. It was imperative that the his book Victoria Cross outbreak of the Second World War, he out with the typical devices of a Q-ship: five 12- Germans had to remain convinced Heroes. For more rejoined the Royal Navy and served pounder guns variously concealed by a “steering that the ship had already been information, visit www. on shore for five years at Poole, house” aft, hinged flaps on the main deck and abandoned. The second and third victoriacrossheroes. Portland and Yeovilton. dummy cabins on the upper deck; two six-pounder shells started a major fire that meant com. Lord Ashcroft’s After the war, Pitcher’s health guns hidden at either end of the bridge; and a Maxim Pitcher and several others were now VC and GC collection is deteriorated and he became seriously gun in a dummy hencoop amidships. There were 11 concealed on a “red-hot deck”. They on public display at the ill with tuberculosis. He died on officers and 56 men on board, with Pitcher one of the lifted boxes of cordite off the deck and IWM, London. Visit February 10, 1946, at the Royal Naval few regular Royal Navy ratings. Loderer was on to their knees in a bid to stop them www.iwm.org.uk/ Auxiliary Hospital in Sherborne, commissioned under her original name on October exploding, but still they did not flee. At heroes. For more Dorset, aged 57. His body was brought 21, 1915, but was renamed Farnborough after the that point, UC-71 was obscured by information on Lord back to Swanage, where he was buried Admiralty received an anonymous tip-off that her black smoke from Dunraven’s stern, Ashcroft’s work, visit in Northbrook Cemetery. The new role as U-boat “bait” had been leaked to the which presented Campbell with a www.lordashcroft. Commonwealth War Graves’ Germans. On March 22, 1916, Farnborough made the dilemma. He knew an explosion on com. Follow him headstone marking his grave bears fourth Q-ship U-boat “kill” of the war when she sank his own vessel was inevitable, but if he on Twitter: @ the inscription: “At the going down of Kapitänleutnant Guntzel’s U-68 with all hands. This delayed in giving the order to abandon LordAshcroft the sun and in the morning we will success led to the Q-ship’s captain, Lieutenant ship he might get a clear shot at the remember them.” THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 11

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BATTLE READY View of the Dunraven with mine-sweeping gear by Stephen Bone, main picture; Petty Officer Ernest Pitcher VC DSM by John Wheatley, far left; below, Ernest Pitcher’s medal group, including his VC on left; Ernest and his wife with King George V and Queen Mary; Dunraven in action by Charles Pears © IWM (ART.IWM ART 1189); LD 3133); (Q 19625); 5130) 12 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

LETTERS HOME ‘I get into mud up to my knees’

Second Lieutenant Bernard Wilfrid Long was an We’ve been having it awfully wet here during intelligent boy who won a scholarship to Birmingham the last day or two and my word talk about University at 16 in 1912 and graduated with a First. At university, he joined the OTC and was commissioned mud — it’s simply awful. I get into mud up in the West Yorkshire Regiment in January 1916, to my knees. Well how are you all getting on while his older brother, Sidney, served in East Africa at home? I suppose you miss us a bit and survived the war. Bernard served in France as an intelligence officer from July 1916 and recounts his sometimes. I feel a bit fed up sometimes but I experience of trench life in Festubert in a letter to his soon get over that and there’s one good thing, father, Daniel, on August 18, 1916: I’m not funky. I can take a sporting risk as While the battalion has been in the trenches, well as any of ’em and shells have got no fear I have been at Battn Head Quarters in a farm for me. I suppose I may catch one sometimes, at the end of the communication trench about in fact it seems marvellous how you can miss 1 mile from the front line… Well I must say them. But you seem to somehow. I suppose it was fairly enjoyable, at least very exciting. mother worries a bit sometimes but take her I have been out into NO-MAN’S-LAND 4 about and out dad and don’t let her stay times (at night of course) and it has been moping at home. We don’t want to come deliciously quiet and only once were we back and find her old with worry because it’s spotted and then we got into a shell hole out here that we realise what mothers are. where they couldn’t touch us… We have been I’ve seen great big burly chaps who do using a ruined house as an observation post nothing but curse and drink get down and behind our lines and with a telescope you pray like a child when there is a can see the Bosch [sic] walking about miles bombardment on and they don’t care who behind his trenches… sees them and no one dares to joke about it. THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 13

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In a letter to his sister Ethel from Neuve Chapelle on September 13, 1916, Bernard illuminates the soldiers’ ways of wooing French girls: The little kids used to come up and use the French phrases the Tommy uses. “No bon” when I came here and he says he’s been over (no good), “Na poo” (nothing doing or the lid 7 times in attacks on the Bosch line. finished), “Compris?” (do you understand?). Pretty awful that isn’t it and I marvel he’s The talk goes on something like this between alive to tell the tale. a soldier and a girl: Soldier Bonjour mamselle Bonjour m’sieur A week later, Bernard was wounded while inspecting a crater at Givenchy. He returned to England until S Voos allie bon? when he was passed fit for active service. Tres bien m’sieur et vous? Within a month he was dead, killed in action aged 21 S No compris mamselle but walk eh compris at the Battle of Langemarck on August 16, 1917. Four hundred men from the battalion went into action. All walk ce soir compris Mamselle? 10 officers died along with 264 other ranks. Here is Me no promenade m’sieur. Après la guerre. his last letter to his mother, on August 11, 1917: S You no bon. I am off by an early train tomorrow for the Bonjour monsieur. rest billets behind the firing line where we And so the game goes on. The Tommies try shall be for a time to get to know our men etc. hard but the girls won’t have anything to do I am going up with 2 pals and we are all with any Anglais and they always say they pleased. I shall we thinking of all of you will “après la guerre”. when I’m up there and I know you won’t forget me. We’re fighting hard now and it’s a serious game. We’re all ready to lay down He writes a letter to his mother on the same day: everything if need be, and if God wills I’m We are having a fairly nice time of it so far. ready. So goodbye and wish me luck. The old Bosch takes things pretty steady if we Your loving son, Bern do. He is sending over minnies [Minenwerfer – mine launchers] all day long, but we send Bernard’s body was left in German hands, but recov- BONJOUR 6 of our things over for one of his and he soon ered and interred on August 26 near Zonnebeke, A British soldier holding a then exhumed and re-interred at Buttes New British hedgehog talks to a shuts up. I have just heard from a pal of mine Cemetery in Zonnebeke in January 1922. French girl, Rollencourt from Brocton who went down to the Somme Zoe Dare Hall

© IWM (Q 2872) Chateau, 14 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

WHATy DID YOU DO IN THE WAR?

is Pastoral Symphony evokes visions of babbling brooks and bucolic Ralph Vaughan meadows, but the scenes that inspired Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1917 H were not, as he put it, “lambkins frisking about” but the starkly bleak opposite – the battlefields of northern France, where the English composer served as a stretcher-bearer and ambulance driver. Williams: He witnessed a daily toll of casualties – many of them close friends, including the young composer George Butterworth, to whom he dedicated his London Symphony. ‘A vivid As his wife Ursula said: “Working in the ambulance gave Ralph vivid awareness of how men died.” But Vaughan Williams needn’t have been there at all. awareness of Having studied at the Royal College of Music and Cambridge University, he went BѦ ѡѕђ ѡіњђ on to study with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris. He also travelled the country to pursue his fascination for English folk songs and saw success as a Ѥюџ яђєюћ, how men died’ composer with his first two symphonies. By the time war began, he was 41 – old enough to avoid it entirely. But he ѕђ ѤюѠ 41 – volunteered as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving in France, where he survived the Somme in 1916, and a malaria-infested Salonika. ќљё ђћќѢєѕ Then as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery in December 1917, the ѡќ юѣќіё іѡ continual exposure to gunfire took its toll on his hearing, leaving him almost entirely deaf in old age. ђћѡіџђљѦ

YOUR LETTERS

“They completed forms Do they think we are recited each year on conditions of this life and it the war in four different applying for passports standing in Beer? Armistice Day. Rosenberg will all refine itself into POW camps where he which had to be signed by wrote: “I am determined poetry later on.” personally contacted 69 PќѠѡ яќѥ the town’s mayor. that this war, with all its Mr Wynick says: “This British prisoners and drew “He refused to sign, A ѝќђѡ’Ѡ powers for devastations, letter indicates his hopes their cap badges on card We have received a magnificent postbag and inbox telling them they would be ёђѠѝюіџ shall not master my poetry for the future and supplied by his captors. of letters, documents and stories in response to our better going on holiday to — that is if I am lucky contrasts with the letter “There are 12 badges on request for readers’ First World War memories. Here Brighton — which they did — Bernard Wynick, from Mill enough to come through dated January 26, 1918, to each card and the largest, are just a few of the many we would like to share and my father never went Hill, North London, writes all right. I will not leave , who was the Argyll and Sutherland with you. Please keep them coming. abroad again for the rest of his uncle, the leading a corner of my the Private Secretary to Highlanders, is drawn exact Write to: First World War, Telegraph Media Group, of his life.” First World War poet Isaac consciousness covered up, Winston Churchill during full size with the King’s 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT or The poem that William Rosenberg, who “was on but saturate myself with the First World War, and Own Yorkshire Light email [email protected] Jarred so clearly treasured active service in France the strange and this shows that by that Infantry, the smallest, also begins: from June 1916 (he was a extraordinary new time he was in a state of drawn exact size. He told volunteer) until April 1918, despair: ‘What is happening me he never used an I suppose we’re a lot of except for 10 days home to me now is more tragic eraser. He also pulled hair heathens leave in September 1917 than the passion play. from his head to make a Don’t live on the angel plan and a spell in hospital in Christ never endured what paintbrush and using nightmares for 15 years But we’re stoking it here in France in October 1917, I endure. It’s breaking me watered-down boot polish, Wюѡђџ, Ѥюѡђџ afterwards.” the trenches and was killed near Arras completely.’” he painted imaginary ђѣђџѦѤѕђџђ Mr Jarred encloses a And doing the best we can when on patrol. Besides pictures. The Germans poem entitled “Water”, composing poetry in were so impressed by his Roy Jarred from Great which his father “kept in his While some people over in appalling conditions, often Pюіћѡіћє Ѥіѡѕ work that they brought him Baddow in Essex writes: pocket for three years and Blighty on scraps of paper, the ѕюіџ юћё яќќѡ more card and some “I have been reading First is now very fragile where Who rave about Kingdom poems were sent to his coloured paints from which World War memories with he stuck it together with Come sister (my mother) for ѝќљіѠѕ he painted flowers and great interest as my father, stamp paper. Ain’t pleased with our typing. He was also in Bob Warwick from scenes from postcards. William ‘Ginger’ Jarred, “It reflects their feelings ability extensive correspondence Newbury, Berks, writes “He was repatriated into joined up in 1914 and spent of how some at home And wanting to stop our with many people.” about the experiences of Holland on May 16, 1918, the years to 1918 fighting viewed winter life in the rum Bernard encloses his grandfather, “Lance and released at 10 o’clock in France. trenches. extracts from a letter Corporal G Warwick, on November 16, 1918. “After the war, he was “In 1920, he and a Water, they say, would be Rosenberg wrote in 15291 1st Battalion Hants The Germans wanted to a jobbing builder and a colleague who spent the better autumn 1916 to one of his Regiment, who was taken keep his pictures but he great footballer, but he war together in France Water, Great God, out here, mentors, the poet prisoner during the Battle managed to persuade never really spoke about decided to visit the area Why, we’re up to our knees , whose of the Somme on July 1, them to let him take them the war and had terrible where they fought. in water, poem “” is 1916, and spent the rest of home. They are now my THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH / MARCH 2 2014 15

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In 1918, Vaughan Williams was appointed director of music, First Army, which in part eased the transition from military to musical life. Like many, he is thought to have suffered from “survivor’s guilt” and struggled to return to normal life, but it didn’t stunt his artistic creativity. By the time of his death aged 85 in 1958, he had written nine symphonies and many other orchestral and choral classics, including operas, ballets, film scores and hymns. The Pastoral Symphony, his third – which premiered in London in 1922 – is NEXT ISSUE regarded as the most war-influenced of all his symphonies, including a passage in which a lone trumpet represents a bugler practising and constantly hitting a wrong }New Technologies: note. “Beneath the symphony’s tranquillity lies its sadness,” wrote the composer’s The First World War biographer, Michael Kennedy. was a test-bed for His work then took a livelier turn with his clashing harmonies a distinct technological departure from his gentle, “pastoral” days. He went on reinventing his style into his development, from seventies, with his Symphony No 6, written in 1946, judged by critics to represent medical advances to the aftermath of an atomic war (Vaughan Williams was not one for analysing his military warfare. Read own intent), and his dark, enigmatic last symphony completed just three months about the ground- before his death. breaking gadgetry, the Vaughan Williams’s music is often said to embody patriotism – the same advent of aerial patriotism that drove a man in his forties to sign up to serve his country. photography and the Zoe Dare Hall naval battle whose technological excellence was the yardstick by which nations measured their self-worth.

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treasured possessions and died for his country at sketches and cartoons here in Accrington and had I would like other people to Mametz on July 1, 1916. drawn by his uncle, Arthur no art lessons but used to see his work.” So perhaps they fought Barnes, who was a driver in do chalk drawings on the together.” both France and the Middle pit tubs. He emigrated to Hugh Gregory’s poem East in 1916. He also has a Australia in 1909 and came AѢєѢѠѡ 1914 begins: rejection letter from John back to England with the Mrs S A Gregory from Bull magazine in London, Australian Army Service Leamington Spa, The past stirs, the dated June 14, 1916, in Corps. Warwickshire, has sent a forgotten grave’s alive; which the editor tells “When he returned to remarkable, despairing The golden future fades Arthur’s father that he Australia after the war, he poem entitled “August from yearning eyes. can’t accept Driver A had numerous art 1914”, written by her Unnumbered hordes of Barnes’s drawings due to exhibitions. grandfather, Hugh Gregory. ages mobilize “the Government “When I was growing up The 45-verse poem, which Their obscure legions: restriction on the import of in the 1930s, people didn’t runs over 23 pages, was silently they drive paper and the consequent talk about the war. But my published in 1916, yet as A dark invasion o’er the reduction in the size of our dad, Tom — who as the far as Mrs Gregory knows, stricken soul. issue”. youngest brother had been it is the only poem her I hear the clash and rumour Mr Barnes explains in his called up in 1918 while all grandfather — who became of all years, letter to The Sunday his elder brothers were a classics masters for many Deafening thought, and in Telegraph: “Arthur was one volunteers — went back to years at Alleyn’s School in the spirit’s ears of 11 children — and the the recruiting office in Dulwich — wrote. Wind the sad clarions, oldest of six brothers who 1921 after he lost his job “I know so little about beats the tragic roll, all fought in the First World and become a soldier him apart from he was an Mustering earth’s springing War. They all served in again, spending eight years officer. It’s sad, but you life to its dark barren different regiments — in India. He would tell me all never bother to ask as a Goal. Northumberland Fusiliers, about Uncle Arthur and it child. But I know that South Lancs, Welsh seemed incredible a miner Ernest Shepard, the Winnie Guards, Kings Liverpool etc from Accrington could the Pooh illustrator, was a Fџќњ ѐќюљ — and all survived. Two become an artist in friend of the family and my њіћђџ ѡќ brothers were gassed and Australia. grandfather dedicated his were in hospital beds next “I have five grandsons poem to Ernest’s brother, ѠѢѐѐђѠѠѓѢљ to one another, one unable who are all students and Cyril, who, as the MOVED BY MUSIC AND WORDS юџѡіѠѡ to speak, the other unable I’m trying to introduce dedication reads, was a From the top, Ralph Vaughan Williams, top; Arthur Barnes’s to see. But they both them to the 1914-1918 war. 2nd Lieutenant in the Middle Eastern sketches; poet Isaac Rosenberg (left); cap Derek L Barnes, from recovered. Not even good schools are Devonshire Regiment and badges by Lance Corporal G Warwick Accrington, Lancashire, has “Arthur was a collier teaching it enough.” 16 MARCH 2 2014 / THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH