Diary of a Dead Officer: Being the Posthumous Papers of Arthur Graeme West

by Arthur Graeme West, Nigel Jones (Introduction)

The Diary of a Dead Officer brings together the private papers of Arthur Graeme West. First published posthumously in 1917, it presents a scathing picture of army life, and West's poems, which make up the fifth section of the book, serve as a powerful protest against the futility of war. Born in September 1891, West was a quiet, effacing and unathletic youth with a passion for literature, who went on to become a keen Oxford scholar. When war broke out in 1914, it left him for some time untouched. However in January 1915, in a rush of enthusiasm, he enlisted as a Private in the Schools Battalion. From that time, until his death in April 1917, his life was a succession of training in England and trenches in France, with short intervals of leave. West joined from a feeling of duty and patriotism, but the war was to have a profound affect on him. An individualist who hated routine and distrusted discipline, he developed an intense abhorrence to army life and began to question the very core of his beliefs – in religion, patriotism and the reason for war. This growing disillusionment found expression in two particularly powerful war poems he wrote during this time: "God, How I Hate You" and "Night Patrol" which stand deservedly alongside those of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. In August 1916 he became a second lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Shortly after, he wrote to his new battalion threatening to desert the army - but he could not bring himself to post the letter. Less than a year later, on April 3, 1917, he was shot dead by a sniper's bullet near Bapaume. Written with complete frankness and sincerity The Diary of a Dead Officer gives voice to one officer's struggle to come to terms with the realities of war and is a poignant tribute to a lost generation of soldiers. This edition retains the original Introduction by Cyril Joad, an Oxford colleague of West's and an active pacifist; and contains a new Foreword by Nigel Jones, author of Rupert Broke: Life, Death and Myth and The War Walk.

Genres: World War I, Nonfiction

171 pages, Hardcover

First published September 23, 1991

Reviews

[☄ · Rating 4 out of 5]

what brief phantoms in a dream – a dream within a dream, this truly is my life, and how gladly i would end it now.

graeme 💔 this line from the diary snagged at me, and i wonder now if he realized he had written it in iambic meter... gosh, what a waste of a brilliant poet the war was. this diary is heartbreaking. i've never encountered a war poet so vehemently against the war, and so desperate to get out of it. wilfred owen loved the trenches and his men; blunden requested to be sent back to france when he was pulled out of the lines. even sorley, who hated the war the most, loved its refining fire. graeme just wanted to go home, to his books and to his art. his friends. why go on? is a phrase repeated again and again in these pages. i only wish his verse were better known, it's incisive and angry and clever in a way that anticipates sassoon (and does him one better with its wild-eyed desperation) but has received a fraction of the attention. a shame. alas, i'm glad i know him now, and can do the necessary work to make sure he's remembered as he ought...!

[Ramanqu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor kid.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is collection of entries from West's diaries, some letters and some of his poems. It is a reprint of the 2007 edition with an introduction from Nigel Jones. This was, in turn, a new edition of the original, which came out in 1919 with an introduction by West's friend, the pacifist philosopher Cyril Joad. West had been killed in 1917 and had - as this book demonstrates - come to be filled with a horror of the war he had found himself involved in. Joad's introduction positions West as a pacifist martyr, but that doesn't quite fit West properly. Joad had his reasons.

These diary entries makes for a fascinating read and lay out how West's thinking changed to such a degree that he almost deserted. His story and that of Siegfried Sassoon (who is the better known of the two) dovetail to a certain degree but West could not quite bring himself to mail the letter he had written and so went back to war.

The collection's entries are of varying lengths. Some are bite sized comments on events of the day, others longer more considered meditations of war, and God, and death. Sometimes his tone reminds me of Peter Carter, the pilot played by David Niven in a Matter of Life and Death. I almost could here him saying: "I love you, June. You're life and I'm leaving you." Compare that to West's "What has come to me recently is the supreme value of human love.

West doesn't want to keep fighting because he has come to realise that the fighting is about nothing of value: "Duty to country and King and civilisation! Nonsense! For none of these things is a man forced to leave his humanity on one side and make a passionate destroying beast of himself. I am a man before I am anything else, and it is all that is human in me that revolts."

But West's thoughts range over many subjects as they pertain to war. He can be pretty scathing about patriotism, religion, the army, and war. His most savage language though can be found in his poems, particularly God! How I Hate You, You Young Cheerful Men!", which begins:

GOD! How I hate you, you young cheerful men,
Whose pious poetry blossoms on your graves...

It might be one of the most scathing bits of writing from any poet from World War One. Certainly the most direct.

Perhaps though his most affecting poem is 'The Night Patrol' which provides a vivid picture of what patrolling No Man's Land might really mean.

It is a short book, but a powerful one. And because it isn't as well-known perhaps as other books from the time it might be a good one for you to pick up if you're interested in World War One. Here we get to meet an 'Angry Young Man' decades before 'Look Back in Anger.'

[Mark Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only really read half of this book to be honest. I didn’t much like it. I’m sure West was a very intelligent young man but I found his writing rather rambling and. It very interesting. I was drawn to read it as he didn’t survive but the book just didn’t float my boat. His poems at the end did nothing for me.

[John Arnette · Rating 4 out of 5]

War destroys a man's faith and turns his personal and political philosophy upside down.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

War changes a man to bitterness and atheism.

[Thom Swennes · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Diary of a Dead Officer by Arthur Graeme West is the personal account of a British officer in World War I. Born is 1891; Arthur West was twenty-four when he enlisted in the army as a private. He had applied for officer training but was refused due to poor eyesight. He went to France and fought in the trenches but returned to Britain to attend an officer training school in Scotland. Once this was completed he returned to France and the trenches only to be killed by a snipers bullet on April 3, 1917.
As a graduate of Oxford he majored in literature. The book contains a selection of his poems. I found the poems depressing and filled with gloom. I don’t know when they were written (life in the trenches could have had a negative effect on his mood) but I wouldn’t rate them extremely high. The diary does show his personal transition from patriot to pacifist. It gave me a new look at that old war. Views he had sounded like those of soldiers that served in Vietnam (and a noisy minority of civilians at home). I had always thought that everyone looked of the World Wars as a necessity and fought, died or survived with a feeling of unblemished patriotism. Arthur West wrote repeatedly that he wasn’t afraid of death; on the contrary, he welcomed it. I guess it really is true: Be careful what you wish for as it just may come true.

[JoAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The diary of an British officer during WWI. I reread the intro after finishing the diary. I found refreshing myself on the facts after reading Arthur's words brought what he said into greater focus and left me with an even deeper impression of the impact of war on the individual fighting it.
I'm not sure how the individual who wrote the intro is related to Arthur, but is apparent they knew each other well. I disagree with his observence that Arthur didn't die heroically because a sniper's bullet caught him as he left his trench. He was a hero because he continued to fight even though he abhorred the killing and wanted to stop.

[Liewen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très mauvaise édition (Forgotten books 1912), simple photocopie de l'édition originale et grosse confusion dans le classement des extraits : ordre chronologique pas toujours respecté, sans raison thématique évidente derrière. Dommage...

Le témoignage en lui-même est cependant passionnant, malgré sa brièveté, que ce soit les descriptions dans les tranchées, extrêmement brutes, les réflexions métaphysiques qui poussent Arthur Graeme West à l'athéisme, la formation pas toujours adaptée (cf partie II). Un témoignage court, poignant et nécessaire.

[Fernanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

While most of what we know about WWI is related to heroic events, brave young men, and unequalled sacrifice not all the men at the front felt grand, and certainly their views changed as the war progressed....

[Peter J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grahame is an outstanding writer but seems to lack meaning in his life, hence his death is all the more tragic.

[Dmitri Garlic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely depressing. Shows how Europe threw a generation of young men into the meat grinder and destroyed the lives of the dead, like West, and spiritually destroyed the survivors.