Turner Donovan Military Books - The world’s finest selection of rare and out-of-print books on British military history from 1800 to 1945
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Great War Memorial Volumes Great War Memorial Volumes   161 Books
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Letters, Essays & Verses of John Brown MC, MA (Oxon.). 1st Ed., 280pp., 194x138mm, 2 portraits. Edinburgh: Elliot. 1921  #69286
[HLMainPic] John Brown was educated at Merchiston Castle School & Balliol College, Oxford. He enlisted in the 9th (TF) Battalion Royal Scots & served with them in Belgium; received a commission in the Seaforth Highlanders in 1915, won the Military Cross in 1916 with the 7th (Service) Battalion & was shot by a sniper near Wytschaete on 11th April 1918 whilst serving with the 9th (Service) Battalion, the Pioneer battalion of the 9th (Scottish) Division. He was twenty-seven when he fell and is buried in Voormezeele Enclosure No. 3. Contains some letters from the Front, also Brown's account of "A" Company, 9th (Service) Battalion Royal Scots in Flanders, February-May 1915. Orig. rust brown cloth, blocked black to sp, VG & scarce. See illustration on our website.   £165
George Buchanan Smith 1890-1915. 1st Ed., vii+142pp., 223x179mm, portrait frontis., 8 photos. Glasgow: Printed by Maclehose, For Private Circulation. 1916  #66007
[HLMainPic] George Buchanan Smith was a son of the Very Rev. Sir George Adam Smith and Lady Smith, of Aberdeen. He was born in October 1890, educated at Glasgow Academy (where he was in the Cadet Corps) and the University of Glasgow (where he was a vocal student and secretary of the Liberal Club). He then entered the legal profession but very soon after graduating (LL.B.) at Aberdeen in June 1914, war broke out and he was promptly commissioned in the Gordon Highlanders (Special Reserve). He was posted to the 1st Battalion in Flanders in December, where he was wounded in his first engagement, on 14th inst, just two days after arriving, in a local attack between Kemmel and Wytschaete. He lost a middle finger of his left hand but after several months in hospital and rather longer convalescing he went out to the 2nd Battalion in August 1915 and was killed in action on 25th September, the first day of the Battle of Loos, aged twenty-four. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Loos Memorial. Contains a detailed memoir of his early life and student days, an account of his two brief periods of active service (including contributions by comrades), extracts from his letters written from France, August-September 1915, numerous letters of condolence and so forth. Orig. grey paper covered boards), blocked in black to front and spine, letter from the subject's mother paid onto paste-down, little rubbed & worn, generally VG.   £225
War Diary and Letters of Captain A. Ellice. 5th Battalion Cameron Highlanders. 1st Ed., 88pp., 198x140mm, portrait frontis. Privately Printed for His Father by Robert Carruthers & Sons, Courier Office, Inverness. 1920  #69375
Alexander Ellice was born in 1894, son of Major Edward E. Ellice D.S.O. and Margaret Ellice, educated at Cargilfield School, Edinburgh, and Rugby. He was working in London when war broke out and obtained a commission (despite poor eyesight) in the newly raised 5th Camerons. Served in France from May 1915, as a Platoon Commander then commanding a Brigade Trench Mortar Battery, until wounded on 6th September 1915. He returned to France in February 1916 and remained there until badly wounded by shrapnel during a relief at Eaucourt l'Abbaye on 13th October the same year. He died in the Casualty Clearing Station at Dernancourt (where he is buried in the Communal Cemetery Extension) three days later. He was twenty-one. Contains descriptive letters written during his first period of active service, a fairly informative diary of his second stint, plus extracts from several letters of condolence. Blue cloth, gilt to front, ltlle stained o/w VG & scarce.   £220
An Australian in the R.F.A., Being Letters & Diary of Adrian Consett Stephen, Lieut., R.F.A., MC, CdeG. 1st Ed., xviii+200pp., portrait frontis. Sydney: Penfold. 1918  #68457
[HLMainPic] Adrian Consett Stephen was ed. at Sydney Grammar School & St Paul's College in the University of Sydney. He graduated B.A. in 1913 and obtained his LL.B. in 1915. Had he not decided to enlist he would have been called to the Bar. However, he was commissioned in the RFA on 1st June 1915 and proceeded to France in August. He was initially attached to a Trench Mortar Battery, then to "D" Battery 242 Army Brigade R.F.A. Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1917, later awarded the MC during operations at Passchendaele (he was in temporary command of the battery for several months, with acting rank of Major). He was KiA 14th March 1918 & is buried in La Clytte Military Cemetery. A book of his dramatic compositions written before the war was published under the title 'Four Plays' by Penfold & Co. in 1918. Contains a lengthy obituary notice published in the Sydney Morning Herald, a Preface by his father & his letters from the Front from August 1915 onwards including a most interesting account of artillery work on the Somme, containing his impressions of the first day of the offensive, the attack at Pozières later in July and the capture of Thiepval on 26th September. In 1917 he was involved in the capture of Vimy Ridge and the Third Battle of Ypres. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, covers damp speckled o/w VG, inscribed "L.B. Heath in memory of his friend The Auithor." See illistration on our website.   £125
The War Letters of Leonard & Walter Ewbank 1915-1917. 1st Ed., 80pp., 190x128mm. Printed by Butler & Tanner, For Private Circulation. nd [c.1920].  #69272
[HLMainPic] Sons of the Rev. John and Julia Helen Ewbank, of Cumberland. 2nd Lieutenant Leonard Ewbank was killed in action with 5th Battalion Border Regiment at Sanctuary Wood on 23rd February 1916, aged twenty-three. He is buried in Railway Dugouts (Transport Farm) Cemetery. Captain John Walter Ewbank was commissioned in the Border Regiment from Sandhurst in 1914, wounded at Neuve Chapelle with the 2nd Battalion, then served with the 1st Battalion at Gallipoli and later in France, where he won the Military Cross in 1916, a Bar to it in 1917 and the Croix de Guerre. He was killed in action at Cambrai on 30th November 1917 whilst serving on Brigade Staff, aged twenty-one, and is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial. Contains interesting letters from both brothers. Orig. pale blue cloth, blocked black to front board. VG.   £145
Letters of Norman Crawford MacLehose Lieut. 8th City of London Bn. (Post Office Rifles) August 1914-May 1915. 1st Ed., [ii]+89pp., 198x135mm, portrait frontis. Glasgow: Printed at the University Press by Robert MacLehose and Co. Ltd. 1916.  #69273
[HLMainPic] Norman Crawford MacLehose was the second son of Norman Macmillan MacLehose, a Harley Street opthalmic surgeon, and of Olive, his wife. He was educated at Rugby and Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a member of the Officers' Training Corps. He took a keen interest in military history. While reading for the Bar he joined the Inns of Court O.T.C. and received a commission in the Post Office Rifles in 1913. He went to France with his Battalion in March 1915 and participated in the Battle of Festubert in May. On 26th May, towards the end of several days' operations he was shot by a sniper while helping to consolidate a position in a captured German trench. He was twenty-six years old and is buried in Post Office Rifles Cemetery, Festubert (described by a contemporary as "one of the little military cemeteries at Le Marais, just west of Festubert, on the road from Béthune.") Contains letters written to several family members from training camps in England 1914-15 then from France containing interesting descriptions of billets, the front line area and trench life in the low lying region near Béthune. (A note explains that "As these letters are printed only for near and intimate friends, it has been thought best to leave them as they stand, not omitting details which otherwise might seem too trivial."). Pale blue paper covered boards and cloth backstrip, gilt to spine and black to front, VG with loosely inserted letter from his mother, Olive, to a family friend explaining the circumstances of publication &c.   £225
Frederick Goodyear: Letters & Remains 1887-1917. 1st Ed., xv+193pp., portrait frontis. McBride Nast & Co. 1920  #69275
[HLMainPic] Memorial volume including letters from the Front. UCS & Brasenose College Oxford (where he was regarded as "unambitious & dilatory"); became Assistant Manager of the Oxford Univ. Press at Bombay, but came home in 1914 to enlist in the ranks of the Artist's Rifles: served with them in France from May-Sept. 1915 when he transferred to the RE (Meteorological Dept.) then commissioned in the Essex Regt. in Feb. 1917, joined the 2nd Essex on 16th March 1917, wounded at Fampoux during Battle of Arras, 12th May 1917 & Died of Wounds on the 23rd May inst. Contents include letters from India & around 45pp. letters from France 1915-17. These are followed by a selection of poetry & prose compositions. Blue cloth, gilt to spine, somewhat rubbed, generally VG.   £95
Kingsley Darling: A Mother's Tribute. 1st Ed., xi+307pp., 227x152mm, portrait frontis., 11 plates. Printed for Private Circulation. 1919  #69277
[HLMainPic] Captain James William Kingsley ("Lovey") Darling, born in 1894 and educated at Merchiston Castle School, enlisted in the 9th Royal Scots in August 1914, was commissioned in October and posted to Gallipoli in September 1915, where he was attached to the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment. He later served with the 5th Royal Scots (later 5/6th Battalion) on the Western Front, was wounded in December 1917 and killed in action on 11th August 1918. He was twenty-four years old and is buried in Bouchoir New British Cemetery. (His family also erected a granite Celtic cross in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, in his memory.) The work almost entirely consists of his wartime letters from Gallipoli and France, together with a number of tributes and extracts from letters of condolence, also some copies of letters of condolence that Darling wrote to the mothers of fallen brother officers. "Lovey" Darling's letters contain some atmospheric passages; e.g. at Gallipoli in October 1915 "the hills are very pretty, and there are quite a number of trees about the place. At night the sunsets are very fine…" but in Krithia Nullah, "The trenches were a perfect maze, and terribly knocked about by shell fire. Dead lay here and there along the parapets, and along the trench itself, feet, hands, bits of body, etc., were sticking out. Several graves marked the spot where those who had fallen among friends lay, and slept their last sleep. Up on top of the nullah a Turk lay, almost falling over the edge of the cliff, with a big hole in his head." Purple cloth, gilt, regimental badge to front, VG with inscription "To Mrs A. Robertson. 11th August 1919,"   £165
Dennis Ely, Captain Durham Light Infantry. 1st Ed., 40pp., 204x138mm, portrait frontis. Oxford, Frederick Hall, Printer to the University. 1916  #69280
[HLMainPic] Slim but moving memorial volume to Dennis Herbert James Ely, born in 1896 and Ed. at Ayr Academy, Whitgift (where he was a segeant in the OTC). Enlisted in Public Schools Brigade 1914 then gazetted to the Durham Light Infantry on 31st October 1914. In October 1915 he was sent with a draft to the 15th (Service Battalion, was slightly wounded in January 1916, wounded again then Killed in Action on 1st July 1916. He has no known grave, is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial, and was twenty years old. Memoir and extracts from letters in training and from France 1915-16, also an account of the 15th DLI on 1st July 1916 "derived partly from the notes written by his Colonel on his death-bed... partly from the letters of brother officers & men." Orig. pale blue paper covered boards with wheat backstrip, blocked black to spine, VG, nice copy. See illustrations on our website.   £165
Geoffrey Watkins Smith. 1st Ed., 219pp., 197x133mm, portrait frontis., 5 plates, facsimile letter & menu card. Oxford: Printed for Private Circulation. 1917  #69281
[HLMainPic] Geoffrey Watkins Smith was born in 1881 at Beckenham, Kent. He was a Scholar at Winchester & New College, Oxford, taking a First and becoming a Fellow & Tutor at New College. A distinguished zoologist, he was commissioned in 13th (Service) Battalion, Rifle Brigade, in 1914 & commanded "A" Coy. in France until his death on the Somme on 10th July 1916 during the battalion's tragic attack at Contalmaison. He was thirty-four years old and is buried in Pozieres Military Cemetery. This memorial contains around 60pp. letters in training & at the front; also biography, lists of scientific publications &c. Grey paper covd. boards with wheat cloth backstrip. Number 91 of 125 individually numbered copies printed, "Each copy is to be numbered & presented to a near relation or intimate friend & the name inscribed." This copy presented to E.A. Elliott. Little wear, VG. See illustration on our website.   £225

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