Sassoon's long journey

by Siegfried Sassoon, Paul Fussell (Editor)

An illustrated selection from Siegfried Sassoon's "The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston" as complied by Paul Fussell.

Genres: Fiction, War

180 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC was born into a wealthy banking family, the middle of 3 brothers. His Anglican mother and Jewish father separated when he was five. He had little subsequent contact with ‘Pappy’, who died of TB 4 years later. He presented his mother with his first ‘volume’ at 11. Sassoon spent his youth hunting, cricketing, reading, and writing. He was home-schooled until the age of 14 because of ill health. At school he was academically mediocre and teased for being un-athletic, unusually old, and Jewish. He attended Clare College, Cambridge, but left without taking his degree. In 1911, Sassoon read ‘The Intermediate Sex’ by Edward Carpenter, a book about homosexuality which was a revelation for Sassoon. In 1913 he wrote ‘The Daffodil Murderer,’ a parody of a John Masefield poem and his only pre-war success. A patriotic man, he enlisted on 3rd August, the day before Britain entered the war, as a trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry. After a riding accident which put him out of action, in May 1915 he joined the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a second lieutenant. At the training depot he met David Thomas, with whom he fell in love.
In November, Sassoon received word that his brother Hamo had died at Gallipoli. On 17th November he was shipped to France with David Thomas. He was assigned to C Company, First Battalion. It was here that he met Robert Graves, described in his diary as ‘a young poet in Third Battalion and very much disliked.’ He took part in working parties, but no combat. He later became transport officer and so managed to stay out of the front lines. After time on leave, on the 18th May 1916 he received word that David Thomas had died of a bullet to the throat. Both Graves and Sassoon were distraught, and in Siegfried’s case it inspired ‘the lust to kill.’ He abandoned transport duties and went out on patrols whenever possible, desperate to kill as many Germans as he could, earning him the nickname ‘Mad Jack.’ In April he was recommended for the Military Cross for his action in bringing in the dead and wounded after a raid. He received his medal on the day before the Somme. For the first days of the Somme, he was in reserve opposite Fricourt, watching the slaughter from a ridge. Fricourt was successfully taken, and on the 4th July the First Battalion moved up to the front line to attack Mametz Wood. It was here that he famously took a trench single handed. Unfortunately, Siegfried did nothing to consolidate the trench; he simply sat down and read a book, later returning to a berating from Graves. It was in 1917, convalescing in 'Blighty' from a wound, that he decided to make a stand against the war. Encouraged by pacifist friends, he ignored his orders to return to duty and issued a declaration against the war. The army refused to court martial him, sending him instead to Craiglockhart, an institution for soldiers driven mad by the war. Here he met and influenced Wilfred Owen. In 1918 he briefly returned to active service, in Palestine and then France again, but after being wounded by friendly fire he ended the war convalescing. He reached the rank of captain. After the war he made a predictably unhappy marriage and had a son, George. He continued to write, but is best remembered as a war poet.

Reviews

[Rick Elinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siegfried Sassoon wrote the most powerful, trenchant antiwar poems from his experience serving in France in WWI. His poetry complements paintings of Otto Dix, Paul Nash, and CRW Nevinson. Sassoon also wrote a fictionalized autobiography in three volumes, where his avatar is George Sherston. Paul Fussell has created an approachable pastiche of Sassoon's poetry, his Sherston books, and photographic images of WWI. So much is understated, but Sassoon gives an insight into the emotions of wanting to be with his army comrades and to fight while being furious about the hypocrisy of war. In one sequence, he single-handedly goes into the German enemy trench and surprises a machine gun group. Why do this? He claims that he was so tired of nothing happening that he wanted to do something and felt if he died, at least he would be at peace.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading, a important British poet who served with distinction in the First World War and was opposed to the conduct of the war...and felt Pease options were being avoided not pursued.