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Ypres 1915   16 Books
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A Soldier of England: Memorials of Leslie Yorath Sanders: Born July 5th, 1893, Killed in Action March 10th, 1917. 1st Ed., [vii]+145pp., portrait frontis. Dumfries: J. Maxwell & Son, Printers. 1920  #66011
[HLMainPic] Sanders was at Trinity College Cambridge in & enlisted in Queen Victoria's Rifle in 1914, went to France in Feb. 1915 & wounded at Hill 60 in April - an event of which he leaves an interesting account. He was commissioned in the RGA but when he returmed to France in Nov. 1916 he was attached to 3rd Field Survey Coy., RE, & killed when a shell burst in the HQ office in which he was working. Contains interesting & sometimes intensely poignant letters from the front in 1915 & 1916-17, various letters of condolence &c. Orig. green cloth, gilt, VG & scarce. See illustration on our website.   £145
[MONCREIFF (Major Richard Henry Fitzherbert, TD] Journal of an "Edinburgh Mountaineer" 1914-1919. Unpublished memoirs: 78+4pp., 4to, dup. typescript (23,000 words approx.)  #67032
[HLMainPic] Unpublished WW1 memoirs of service with 9th (TF) Bn. Royal Scots. Monreiff was an Edinburgh accountant & pre-war TF officer, mobilised in 1914 as "G" company commander (under the eight company system then prevailing); this Coy. became "C" in due course & Moncreiff commanded it it at second Ypres & an attack at High Wood on 23rd July 1916 when he was wounded. He describes working up for overseas service then the Western Front from February 1915. A lasting impression was bathing at the first billets, at Abeele, in Flanders: "A large tub filled with greasy hot water, heated in the men's dixies & four officers using it in turn, right in the middle of the kitchen floor, as almost too much for the succession of farm hand spectators, as indeed for the bathers themselves. George & I, with our usual magnaminity, waived our seniority, & we solemnly drew lots. I was second. Poor old Don was last & his rueful face was very funny as he sat on the edge wondering if after all it was quite worth while." Not long afterwards more serious events took place: "And now we come to the famous 23rd April. For two or three days the Boche had been shelling Ypres very heavily, and on the 22nd they were coming in hot & strong all day. The town was burning fiercely, & we could see great columns of smoke going up. Late in the afternoon we got the order to stand by & packed our valises... The stream of refugees, old men, women & children, staggering under the load... half crazed with despair & terror, was one of the most pitiful & pathetic sights I have ever seen... Later came bands of 'Turcos' all more or less suffering from gas poisoning..." In the afternoon of the 23rd April the 9th Royal Scots counter-attacked near St. Jean, Moncreiff led "C" Coy. into battle: "We set off in two lines, or waves, with two platoons in each, I myself going with the first line... We advanced up a long slope & eventually came to a ridge looking across a small valley. The Boche was in force on the opposite ridge, & as soon as we came over the crest we began to come under long range rifle & machine gun for... having a lot of men hit, mostly wounded fortunately..." The writer survived this event but in July he was injured while horse riding & evacuated to England. When he returned to the Front in March 1916, now a Major, he alternated between commanding "C" Coy. & acting as second-in-command. He commanded his company in the attack at High Wood on 23rd July 1916, when he was wounded: "I was hit by shell fire in the neck, shoulder & very slightly in the face & left hand... I collapsed into a shell hole, where was another wounded warrior, & we bandaged each other up..." He returned to France for a third time in 1917 but this time his service there was fairly brief & uneventful & he was posted to the War Officer as a staff captain in the AG's Branch, where he ended the war. This account was evidently written for this wife during 1918-1919; this copy, which is numbered 3, is a carbon typescript with a number of small ink corrections to the text, in contemp. blue binder's cloth with gilt title to sp. VG. See illustrations on our website.   £465
[RICHARDSON (James C.)] The Living, And the Living Dead, By An Old Soldier: Ruminations, Whims, Fancies, Jokes & Philosophies with A Batch of War Experiences Thrown in After 1914-1918. 1st Ed., 206pp. Arthur H. Stockwell. [1923].  #60443
[HLMainPic] Several curious chapters of philosophising preface the author's main war memoirs. He had apparently served in the Boer War, rushed to enlist at the Whitehall Recruiting Office on 4th August 1914, where he was kept as a clerk in the recruiting of others. In November he left Whitehall for Aldershot then for France in December where he was attached (with the Military Mounted Police - MiC refers) to 5th Cav. Bde. HQ, invalided by a kick from a horse in May 1915, he went out to Egypt in Jan. 1916, was i/c XV Corps HQ (MP details presumably - he mentions that one of his duties at Port Said was looking out for spies) then with 22 Div. HQ in Salonika & Macedonia. He observed some interesting events in Flanders & the Middle East & makes interesting comments on the local inhabitants of the countries in which he served, the relationship between the French/Flemish peasants & the British soldiery, &c. Orig. blue/green cloth, gilt to front & sp., minor wear, generally VG & rare. This copy with bookplate E.A.R. Ewen plus presentation bookplate from Ewen to The Library at Christ's Hospital [School], Horsham, in 1926. Ewen was an accountant & evidently a friend of the author: tipped-onto ffep is an envelope containing a letter from the author to Ewen: "Dear Ewen / At a time of stress, I stressed a book! And I have asked the publisher to send you on a copy. If you read it, you will have had a 'bewildering diversion.' Yours ever, James C. Richardson." Plus loosely inserted letter from the publisher forwarding the said book. See illustrations on our website.   £125
BUCHAN (John) The History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers (1678-1918). 1st Ed., xvi+502pp., 12 plates, 36 maps (some fldg.). Nelson. 1925  #65590
[HLMainPic] Includes Marlborough's Wars, Napoleonic, Crimea, Zulu, Trasvaal, 2nd Boer & First World Wars. Orig. red cloth, gilt, somewhat worn, sound. Signed in pencil by Sam Warnock, father of Robert Warnock who won the MC & was killed on the Somme with the 7th (S) Bn. (& who is the subject of a memorial volume: "Robert Warnock: Scout & Soldier" [1917]). Loosely inserted contemp. notices of his MC & death. See illustration on our website.   £75
CATCHPOOL (T. Corder) On Two Fronts. Ed. by his sister, Foreword by J. Wendel Harris, DD. 2nd Imp., orig. printed wraps., 160pp. A&U. 1919  #63024
[HLMainPic] Corder Catchpool was a Quaker who served in Flanders throughout 1914-15 as a volunteer with the Friends' Ambulance Unit; he resigned in order to martyr himself before the Compulsory Military Service Act (i.e. the introduction of conscription) by refusing to be called up & went to prison as a conscientious objector. Includes his letters from the Western Front & prison in England, accounts of Courts Martial &c. Originally published in 1918, this the 1919 2nd Impression, VG in wraparound dw, with printed label to front. VG. See illustration on our website.   £30
EBERLE (Lt.-Col. V.F., MC) My Sapper Venture. 1st Ed., viii+208pp., portrait fontis., map. VG ex lib. in dw. Pitman. 1973  #61921
[HLMainPic] Pre-war TF officer, RE Fd. Coy. in 48th (S. Midland) Territorial Div., served in France & Italy 1915-18 inc. Ploegsteert, Somme (Ovillers), 3rd Ypres (Langemarck), the Piave & Asiago in 1918. Involved, in 1916, in development of the Bangalore Torpedo. VG ex-lib. in dw Scarce. See illustration on our website.   £25
FETHERSTONHAUGH (R.C.) The 13th Battalion Royal Highlanders of Canada 1914-1919. 1st Ed., xv+344pp., frontis. + 9 plates, 3 fldg. maps. Published by the Regiment. 1925  #63157
[HLMainPic] Fine record of service on the Western Front being: "A substantial & detailed account of the Battalion's movements & battles between Feb. 1915 & Nov. 1918... includes quotations from operational orders & as expected from this author, the entire work is lucid & authoritative." - Perkins. Includes Ypres 1915, Festubert, Givenchy, Ploegsteert, Vimy Ridge 1915-16 & again in 1917, Somme, Passchendaele, Amiens 1918, Final Advance &c. Roll of Hon., awards. Orig. blue cloth, gilt to sp. & front, covers stained & worn but sound & complete. See illustration on our website.   £75
GRANT (Sgt. Reginald, 1st Fd. Arty. Bde., 1st Canadian Division) S.O.S. Stand To! 1st Ed., xiii+297pp., frontis., 7 plates. NY & London: Appleton & Co. 1918  #65459
[HLMainPic] Scarce memoir of three years with the artillery of the 1st Canadian Div. inc. second Ypres 1915, Givenchy, third Ypres 1917, Somme & Vimy Ridge. Orig. green cloth, gilt to front & sp., minor wear, VG. See illustration on our website.   £45
HODDER-WILLIAMS (Ralph, Formerly Lt., PPCLI) Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 1914-1919. 1st Ed., 2 Vols., xxiii+411 & v+391pp., 7 portraits, 11 fldg. maps (one in end-pocket). Hodder & Stoughton. 1923  #67010
[HLMainPic] Very scarce WW1 history consisting of substantial narrative volume & equally impressive & extensive appendices re operations, + regimental nominal roll noting date joined, awards, casualties &c. "excellent unit history... St. Eloi [1915] through to the final actions on the Canal du Nord." - Perkins 140. Orig. red cloth, gilt, with blue sp. labels, VG, Vol. I in dw. See illustration on our website.   £150
MICHELIN GUIDE: The Yser & the Belgian Coast. 1st Ed., 128pp., num. photos., maps. 1919  #64909
[HLMainPic] The front from Nieuport to Dixmude & environs. Good & well-illus. intro. with many early post-war photos. Orig. cloth, VG uncommon. See illustration on our website.   £20

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