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Description: | Elaborately descriptive and somewhat rambling ms memoir in 4 volumes (1012pp) (written 1918 - 1934) detailing his experiences during and immediately following the First World War (June 1916 - May 1920) when he served in the 7th Battalion East Surrey Regiment (37th Brigade, 12th Division), minutely recording daily life in the trenches, his work as a ration-bearer and waiter to the Sergeant's Mess while on the Somme (July - December 1916), the move to Arras (January 1917), his training behind the lines and involvement in the opening days of the Battle of Arras (April 1917), his actions during a failed raid, which he blamed on the inebriation and poor leadership of the officers, and the brutal German counterattack that followed (May 1917), his work as a batman for an officer he whom he held in contempt for abandoning his company during a raid (August 1917), his time out of the lines in Amiens and Arras during which he describes the numerous prostitutes in France and their relationships with the English soldiers (August - November 1917), the opening day of the Battle of Cambrai where he was shot through both cheeks (November 1917), his hospitalisation in France where he describes the injuries of his fellow patients (November 1917 - January 1918), his journey back to the United Kingdom and his stay at the Queen's Facial Hospital, Frognal where he underwent an operation on his jaw without anaesthesia (January 1918) and his repeated periods of training and hospitalisation at Dover until he received a medical discharge (February 1918). Clare devotes considerable space to his negative opinions about the British Army and the French peasantry, but primarily about his commanding officers, many of whom he held in low esteem. Also included is an appendix of transcribed letters written by Clare to his mother, in which he expresses his faith as a Plymouth Brethren and conveys a deeply pious religious conviction not found in the memoirs.
Cataloguer BEK
Catalogue date 2006-07-12 | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Clare, P | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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