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 Wilfred Owen 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 Sponsored by WELCOME 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’. Tably 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 Imperial War Museum’s LETTERS HOME Second Lieutenant Anthony Richards, telling of the Bernard Wilfrid Long influential role of war poet 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, October 1918. 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: Victoria Cross 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 Royal Welch Fusiliers 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 Nprominent 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 Robert Graves 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 Sponsored by 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 “Anthem for Doomed Youth” (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 Craiglockhart, 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.