Teenage Tommy: Memoirs of a Cavalryman in the First World War

by Richard van Emden

Benjamin Clouting was just sixteen years old when he embarked with the British Expeditionary Force for France in August 1914. The youngest man in the 4th Dragoon Guards, he took part in the BEF's celebrated first action at Casteau on August 22nd, and, two days later, had his horse shot from under him during the famous cavalry charge of the 4th Dragoon Guards and the 9th Lancers at Audregnies. Ben served on the Western front during every major engagement of the war except Loos, was wounded twice, and in 1919 went with the Army of Occupation to Cologne. The son of a stable groom, Ben was brought up in the beautiful Sussex countryside near Lewes and from his earliest years was, as he often said himself, "crazy to be a soldier". He worked briefly as a stable boy before joining up in 1913; his training was barely completed when war broke out. The Regiment, knowing Ben to be under age, tried to stop him embarking for France, but he flatly refused to be left behind. During the next four years, he served under officers immortalized in Great War history, including Major Tom Bridges, Captain Hornby, and Lieutenant-Colonel Adrien Carton de Wiart VC.Teenage Tommy is a detailed account of a trooper's life at the front, vividly recalling, for example, the privations suffered during the retreat from Mons. and later, the desperate fighting to hold back the German onslaught at 2nd Ypres. But this is more than just a memoir about trench warfare. Ben's lively sense of humor and healthy disrespect for petty restrictions make this an entertaining as well as a moving story of life at the front.

386 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2014

About the author

Richard van Emden is a British author and television documentary producer who specializes in the First World War.

Reviews

[M.J. Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the blood and guts fest of some memoirs as this guy is definitely a product of his generation; brave, modest, gentlemanly... All those qualities we appear to have lost unfortunately.
At 16 he was barely old enough to leave school, but he defied his regiment (who wanted to leave him at home) and set off for war, being present at both the first shot of the Great War, and the last great cavalry charge of the British Army.
Legend.
I think this memory sums it all up; Ben relays to the interviewer that each cavalry battalion had a member of the pioneer corps attached to them, there to dig latrines x 4 each time they made camp and fill in the holes when they moved again. And what did Ben and his friends name these lucky fellows?
...the rear admiral.
Priceless.
The world is a poorer place without these old contemptibles.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so different from most of the books on the First World War in that it described the events as seen through the eyes of Benjamin Clouting. Other books describe the overall picture and the various campaigns. This gave a good insight in to every day events with all the associated dangers and the horrendous conditions in the trenches just eating sleeping and performing other bodily functions, the problems with lice. The conditions were accepted as was the fate of the animals used to help fight the war. He was lucky that he had a job he liked looking after the colonels horses even though he did have a spell in the front line. He was wounded and recovered but at the end of the war when he contracted appendicitis and the complications that developed just showed how vulnerable quite fit soldiers were.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read into a young man's life during WW1.

[Tracey Terrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really brings to life the suffering everyone went through in the first world war.

[Sue Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, you can hear the emotions in the words. Not too graphic but gives a good feel for how the first world war was, not just the trenches and the mud.