Despatch Rider on the Western Front, 1915–18: The Diary of Sergeant Albert Simpkin MM

by David Venner

The book is skilfully abridged version of the diary of a First World War motorcycle despatch rider, Sergeant Albert Simpkin, who was attached to the HQ 37th Division. The diary entries, and some longer descriptions of the main actions of the Division, provide a fascinating record of the life of a despatch rider on the Western Front; one day dodging shell holes and ammunition limbers to take his despatches to the front, the next observing the quaint but often courageous lives of the local populace. Throughout the diary are colourful and amusing anecdotes about his fellow soldiers, and critical comments on the strategies and tactics employed by the officers.

302 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2015

Reviews

[Kate]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It took me a reeeeally long time to get through it ... but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The diary format was simultaneously hard to read in terms of pleasure reading, and FASCINATING knowing that Sgt Simpkins was describing first-hand experiences of events that we only know of as pivotal days and battles in history books. The scenes of horror and sheer terror were broken by many stories of humour, boredom, loneliness and camaraderie that is military life in combat.

My interest really started to ramp up when I started mapping out the movements of Sgt Simpkin’s battery against those described in my Grandfather’s Battery Book, 60th Canadian Field Artillery. For the most part, Simpkins and my Grandfather’s unit were on average about 30 km apart on most days from August 2017 to the end of the war. Some days they were as close as 8 km apart, and one day they were in the same village during the battle of Amiens. In many places in the book, Simpkins describes scenes and experiences that are exactly mirrored in my Grandfather’s battery book. This fascinates me, and I imagine the scenes that Simpkins describes as being those that my Grandfather witnessed ... they would have walked the same roads and probably been in the same establishments ... I wonder if their paths ever crossed.

This work is a diary and it reads as such. It’s also written in the language and vernacular of the day, so isn’t a super easy read. But for this reason, just knowing this is a first-hand experience of WWI as described by someone *who was there,* makes it an incredibly important piece of work and a rare treasure. We’ve seen the things described on movie screens and written in works of fiction, but these words are actual experiences, in the form of an intimate diary. Finally, Sgt Simpkin’s description of his experience and emotions on Armistice Day, as well as the very last paragraph and sentence, are absolutely beautiful and this alone makes it worth the read.

There is nothing more peaceful than a man fishing.

[Froyjb]

What interested me the most was here is a Man who not only witnessed the horrific scenes but, lived to tell the tale, I can only thank him for bringing the tale of the carnage, suffering & death that the hundreds of thousands of service Men of all nationalities had to endure. But the top ranking for me at the moment is Tommy the last Hero

[Ernest Carter]

A Good Read

A good read on the perilous life of a dispatch rider in wartime and the life they had in France.