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British Army Manuals (1914-18) British Army Manuals, Text Books and Handbooks (1914-1918)   84 Books
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Corps Extracts. "A" and "Q" Branch Headquarters, Cavalry Corps. January, 1916. 2nd Ed., orig. buff printed card wraps., 40pp. + blank interleaves. Printed by Harrison & Sons for HMSO. 1916  #61040
[HLMainPic] These 'extracts' from Cavalry Corps standing orders relate to Commissions & Cadet School (with details of how candidates may become eligible for commissions in various branches of the service; how the commissions should be applied for & details of the establishment of the officer Cadet School in France ["Classes are received fortnightly, & the duration of the course is about one month..."] &c). Also contains details re promotions, reporting of casualties, guidance on courts martial, billeting, civilian claims against damages to billets &c. Much of interest on these various non-operational yet essential matters. Very nice condition, this copy with around 20 signatures of members of Cavalry Corps HQ, ranging from the GOC, Lt.-Gen. Sir Cecil Edward Bingham [who relinquished command of the Corps in March 1916, which neatly dates these inscriptions to early 1916, soon after this issue was published], Brig. Home (BGGS), Brig. Longmore (DA&QMG) & various lesser functionaries. VG & rare. See illustration on our website.   £145
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
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.   £175
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
An American Soldier: Letters of Edwin Austin Abbey, 2d. 1st Ed., [ix]+174pp., 202x134mm, portrait frontis., map (Vimy Ridge, showing location of his grave). VG in partyial dw. Houghton Mifflin, Boston & New York. 1918  #66405
[HLMainPic] Edwin Austin Abbey the Second, son of William Burling Abbey and Katharine Eleanor Abbey of Philadelphia, enlisted 2nd Canadian Pioneer Battalion Oct. 1915, served in Flanders March-April 1916 when he was wounded. Commissioned in 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles, returned to the Front in Dec. 1916 & Killed in Action by a sniper at Vimy Ridge on 10th April 1917. Contains lengthy letters written during training in Canada & on active service during 1916-17, these giving a very good impression of his life in France and Flanders, both in and behind the lines. They are followed by several letters of condolence, one of them containing a detailed account of his final hours and the location of his body (which had been plundered by the Germans for identifications), with a map showing the location of his battlefield grave. Orig. brown paper covered boards with cloth backstrip, gilt to spine and title to front, VG in dw (latter scarce example, but lacking sp. panel). See illustration on our website.   £125
Richard Vincent Sutton: A Record of His Life Together with Extracts from His Private Papers. 1st Ed., [ii]+195pp., 290x217mm, portrait frontis., 3 other portraits, 2 further plates (one of HQ Staff, 4th Army, 1917, all subjects identified), several small sketches and diagrams. Printed [for private circulation] by George W. Jones, Gough Square, Fleet Street. 1922  #66399
[HLMainPic] A fine & rare memorial volume. Sir Richard Vincent Sutton, sixth Baronet of Norwood Park, county Nottingham, and Benham Valence, Berkshire, "Dick," was born in 1891 and Ed. at Eton. Failing to gain entry to Oxford University he was granted a commission in the 1st Life Guards in 1910, doing duty in London and Windsor when not shooting on his estate or travelling in europe. He served abroad with the Life Guards in October 1914, when after three weeks in Flanders, he was slightly wounded near Zandvoorde on the 25th. This first period of active service is described in lengthy daily diary entries. Sutton returned to his regiment in March 1915 and was wounded again on 13th May near Hooge. Out again in August and joined IV Corps Staff for several months then 4th Army Staff, where he remained for twenty-five months as ADC to Sir Henry Rawlinson, including the planning and execution of the Battle of the Somme. In September 1917 he was then reclaimed by his regiment as Adjutant, then served with the Guards Machine Gun Regiment in 1918. Surviving to the end, he was struck down by influenza after the armistice and died in Base Hospital at Wimereux on 29th November 1918. He was buried in the Terlincthun British Military Cemetery, was twenty-seven years old and held the Military Cross. This lavish memoir includes lengthy extracts from his letters to family and friends throughout his service on the Western Front. Blue/grey paper covered boards with wheat cloth backstrip with paper label, VG.. See illustrations on our website.   £350
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

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