Turner Donovan Military Books - The world’s finest selection of rare and out-of-print books on British military history from 1800 to 1945
  Stock last updated on 10 September 2025
 
   

Great War Memorial Volumes Great War Memorial Volumes   85 Books
   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   
Essays, Poems, Letters by Bernard Pitt, M.A. (Assistant Master Cooper's Company's School), Lieut., Border Regiment, Attached Trench Mortar Battery, Killed in Action, April 30th, 1916. 1st Ed., ix+202pp., 217x144mm, portrait frontis. Francis Edwards. 1917  #66058
[HLMainPic] Bernard Pitt was born in 1881 and was an assistant master at the Cooper's Company's School. He was Killed in Action by the explosion of a German mine between Souchez and Givenchy at 7 p.m. on 30th April 1916. His body was never found and he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. He was thirty-four. Includes 50pp. interesting and atmospheric letters from France & Flanders between December 1915 and April 1916, serving with 47th Trench Mortar Battery, notable for rare account of trench mortar work in the front line (Pitt describes the phenomenon, known well to infantrymen, of mortar men turning up in their trench, loosing off a few rounds then clearing out before the inevitable retaliation). The letters are followed by poems (including one war poem) and various prose pieces on the nature of poetry, comedy, and so forth. Orig. green cloth, gilt to front, somewhat rubbed, generally VG. See illustration on our website.   £95
Kenneth Gordon Garnett MC, RFA, 30 July 1892-22 August 1917. 1st Ed., 62pp., portrait frontis., 11 plates. Privately printed at the Chiswick Press. 1917  #67100
[HLMainPic] A memoir by his Mother with selections from his letters from the Front followed by customary extracts from obituaries & letters of condolence. Garnett was born in 1892, Ed. at St. Paul's School & Trinity College Cambridge (rowed in the triumphant boat in the 1914 boat race). He was commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery in Jan. 1915 & proceeded to France the following month, only to be accidentally wounded in March. He returned to the Front in Oct. 1915 & spent the winter in the Ypres Salient then, on 24th August 1916, during a bombardment of Delville Wood, he was shot in the neck & paralysed. He was convalescent in England for a year before his death from a relapse of his spinal wound & is buried in Wandsworth (Putney Vale) Cemetery. Orig. brown paper covd. boards with wheat cloth backstrip, titled in black to front & spine, ink stain at foot of front board, o/w VG. See illustration on our website..   £125
Letters of an English Boy, Being the Letters of Richard Byrd Levett, King's Royal Rifle Corps, who Died for England, at the Age of Nineteen, in the Great War. March 10, 1917. [Compiled by his Mother, Mrs. Maud Sophia Levett.] xii+194pp., 9 plates (including portraits and facsimile bookplate). Eton College: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd. 1917  #67099
[HLMainPic] Richard William Byrd Levett was born in 1898 & educated at St Peter's Court Preparatory School, Eton from 1911-15, then Sandhurst from November 1915 until he received his commission in July 1916. Posted initially to the 6th (SR) Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps at Sheerness then to the 1st Battalion (2nd Division) on the Somme Front in France in December 1916. He was appointed to command No. 8 Platoon in "B" Company, then briefly posted to command the 2nd Divisional Company, consisting of shoemakers, carpenters etc., but rejoined his platoon in time to take part in the attack at Irles on 10th March 1917. He was killed near Grevillers Trench by the British barrage, behind which the attack was following closely. He was nineteen and is buried in Albert Communal Cemetery Extension. Contains interesting, observant & atmospheric letters from the Front, recording his duties & surroundings including attendance at Anti-Gas School. For example, a letter dated 13th Jan. 1917, from "The Abomination of Desolation," describes the environs of Contalmaison at that time: "What I think it is most like is the most depressing view in the 'Black Country' that you can find. Take away all buildings and for cinders put brown earth all churned up into millions of shell holes & smashed up trenches. Cover the whole with thick mud – fill all depressions with water, scatter round thousands of empty beef tins, broken rifles, braziers, cart limbers, etc., pieces of men's clothing, boots and equipment & add a continuous roar of guns – there mustn't be a tree, a house or a bird in the scene, but just as far as you can see all round rolling mud covered with débris – well, you can't imagine now what it is like, but I can tell you it is horrible." Concludes with letters of condolence from brother officers, chaplain, his servant etc., an account of "The 'Bapaume Ridge' and the Taking of Irles" reproduced from the Morning Post and finally a letter to be given to his parents in the event of his death. Orig. olive cloth, gilt title to spine & front, corners dec. with enamelled bands in the colours of Eton College and the KRRC, book review to front paste-down, little rubbed & bumped, VG & rare. See illustration on our website.   £165
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
Letters of Ivar Campbell Written Between May 1915 & January 1916. 1st Eds., [iii]+106pp., portrait frontis. Privately Printed (by A.L. Humphreys). 1917  #66644
[HLMainPic] Ivar Campbell, son of Lord & Lady George Campbell, grandson of the 8th Duke of Argyll, was Ed. at Eton & Christ Church College, Oxford. He received a commission in 3rd (SR) Bn, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was attached to 1st Seaforth in France May 1915-Nov. 1915 when this bn. was posted to the Mesopotamian front. DoW received during the Battle of Sheikh Saad on 8/1/1916 & is commemorated on the Basra Memorial. "Letters" contains largely his letters from the Western Front, with the Indian Corps in the Bethune region & the Battle of Loos; thereafter a record of the move via Marseilles to Mesopotamia and arrival there: very soon after this he was killed. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG & scarce. See illustration on our website.   £145
James Lusk, BA (Cantab).; Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur; Captain & Adjutant 6th Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). Letters & Memories. 1st Ed., [vii]+151pp., portrait frontis., col. plate (of Legion d'Honneur). Oxford: Printed for B.H. Blackwell. 1916  #66642
[HLMainPic] James Lusk was commissioned in the 6th Cameronians in 1908, mobilised & served in France March-Dec. 1915. Memoir followed by extensive & interesting letters from training and the Front: wounded by a trench mortar on Christmas Day 1915 whilst going round his trenches & DoW 28/12/15. He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur at Festubert in June when he was Bn. Transport Officer & the bn. having lost heavily in officers he made his way up the line & helped reorganise. He was appointed adjutant after this battle. Orig. grey paper covd. boards with purple cloth backstrip, VG. See illustrations on our website.   £145
Captain Harvey Blease, 15th Battalion the King's Liverpool Regiment, attached 1/7th Lancs. Fusiliers. Killed in Action in Gallipoli, August 7th, 1915. 1st Ed., 67pp., 200x143mm, portrait frontis. No imprint or date [c.1916]  #66584
[HLMainPic] Harvey Blease was the son of Walter and Mary Blease, of Sefton Drive, Liverpool; husband of Helen Dorothy Stanley Blease, of Rostherne, Blundellsands, Liverpool, and was educated at Sedbergh School. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 7th August 1915, aged thirty-two, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial. Contains his diary from 25th May 1915, embarking for the East, then on the Gallipoli peninsula from the beginning of July, where he was posted to the 1st/7th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. Includes descriptions of the line, the incessant firing of artillery and snipers and so forth. After two weeks he went to Imbros for a short rest then returned to Gallipoli. The diary continues to 3rd August with interesting daily entries. Orig. grey card wrappers, titled to front "Diary of Captain Harvey Blease." VG & rare. See illustrations on our website.   £220
The War Letters of Leonard & Walter Ewbank 1915-1917. 1st Ed., 80pp., 190x128mm. Printed by Butler & Tanner, For Private Circulation. nd [c.1920].  #66579
[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 & rare with loosely inserted slip "With kindest regards from R.B. Ewbank." See illustration on our website.   £165
Letters written in the Trenches near Ypres between May & September, 1915, by H.M. Butterworth, 9th Rifle Brigade, who fell in action on September 25th, 1915. 1st Ed., 219x142mm, 84pp., portrait frontis. Wellington, NZ: Whitcombe & Tombs. 1916  #66577
[HLMainPic] Hugh Montagu Butterworth was Ed. at Marlborough & University College, Oxford, but left prematurely when his family emigrated to New Zealand. Became a schoolmaster at Wanganui College & returned to England in 1915 where he obtained a commission in the 9th (S) Battalion Rifle Brigade. He was killed in action during a diversionary attack near Ypres, in support of the Loos offensive, on 25th September 1915, has no known grave & is commemorated on the Menin Gate. He was twenty-nine. Memorial containing obituaries and tributes plus lengthy letters from the front during four months in the Ypres Salient, the last written before going into his last action: "I am leaving this in the hands of the Transport Officer, and if I get knocked out he will send it on to you. We are going into a big thing. It will be my pleasant duty to leap lightly over the parapet and lead D company over the delectable confusion of old trenches, crump holes, barbed wire, that lies between us and the Bosche, and take a portion of his line. Quo facto I shall then proceed to bomb down various communication trenches and take his second line. In the very unlikely event of my being alive by then I shall dig like blazes and if God is good, stop the Bosche counter-attack..." Orig. apple green cloth, titled in black to front board, little rubbed at extremities o/w VG & scarce. See illustrations on our website.   £220
Above the French Lines: Letters of Stuart Walcott, American Aviator: July 4, 1917, to December 8, 1917. 1st Ed., v+93pp., portrait frontis., 2 plates. Princeton Univ. Press. 1918  #66494
[HLMainPic] Memoir & letters. Walcott graduated from Princeton in 1916 &, influenced in part by Carroll Winslow's account of flying in France (qv), he trained to be a pilot & joined the Lafayette Escadrille. On 12th December 1917 he was shot down in his first aerial combat, having himself already downed one EA on this occasion. Orig. pale blue cloth, titled in black to front & sp., VG with citation for the Croix de Guerre avec Palme posthumously awarded to him neatly written out on rear endpapers ("on December, 12, 1917, attacked an enemy airplane. He pursued it four kilometers behind the German line, where he brought it down. He was in turn attacked by three other monoplanes & was driven down.")   £65

   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   




View Order/Checkout


 

 



Terms & Conditions  - Links  - Contact Us  - Newsletter
Turner Donovan Military Books, Flat 1, 22 Florence Road, Brighton BN1 6DJ