paul_web Posted 2 October , 2010 Share Posted 2 October , 2010 Aristocrats Go To War by Jerry Murland Jerry Murland's book is now available to purchase. It tells the stories of how seventeen people came to be buried in the cemetery of Zillebeke church during the last two weeks of the First Battle of Ypres in November 1914. All but three were officers. All these had gone to public school – principally Eton - many of whom were listed in Burke's Peerage or Landed Gentry and hence the title of the book. So, as Jerry says : "Thus, as a group, they are very much representative of the Edwardian officer class that went to war in 1914". The majority were in the Grenadier or Coldstream Guards, part of the 4th Guards Brigade, 2nd Division, with most of remainder being in different regiments of the 7th Cavalry Brigade, 3rd Cavalry Division. Through contact with the families concerned Jerry has unearthed many diaries and letters, as well as photographs, that form the basis of the book. It is just under 200 pages long and I found it a very easy read. It begins by explaining the impact of the army reforms and reorganization on the British Army that went to war in 1914. It then explains generically how the public school ethos of "playing the game" prepared the officer class for war, as well as the public school careers of those buried at Zillebeke. This is followed by an overview of the lead up to the First Battle of Ypres and a summary of the main actions during the battle, including how these impact those buried in the churchyard. The remainder of the book describes in detail the various actions that lead up to the deaths of the seventeen. It is in these chapters that the extracts from the diaries and letters helps the 21st century reader to get a real feeling of how these men felt as they experienced the desperate battles around Zillebeke in November 1914. I found the diary and letter extracts fascinating, and believe that they, more than anything else, give a sense of what it would have been like to have been alongside these men almost a hundred years ago. I highly recommend the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 3 October , 2010 Share Posted 3 October , 2010 Sounds interesting. Might one bring a grubby aspect into this: how much is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel9 Posted 3 October , 2010 Share Posted 3 October , 2010 £13.99 on Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aristocrats-Go-War-Uncovering-Zillebeke/dp/1848841523 John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Broomfield Posted 3 October , 2010 Share Posted 3 October , 2010 Thanking you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterhogg Posted 3 October , 2010 Share Posted 3 October , 2010 Thank you for this interesting post. I have a book packed away somewhere entitled "The Souls" about a number of influential and highly placed Edwardian families that would have included the Grenfells, Asquiths and the like. This sounds very much like a book I would enjoy. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrymurland Posted 7 October , 2010 Share Posted 7 October , 2010 I think the WH Smith Website is the cheapest now! Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
squirrel Posted 7 October , 2010 Share Posted 7 October , 2010 My copy, ordered through the GWF Amazon link, arrived today - a quick skim through shows that this is an excellent book. Thoroughly researched and well written; a great additon to the bookshelf and Zillibeke is on the itinerary for my next Western Front visit with the book in hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrymurland Posted 7 October , 2010 Share Posted 7 October , 2010 Thank you very much - i hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing and researching it. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 6 January , 2011 Admin Share Posted 6 January , 2011 Jerry I particularly like your breakdown of the battles of Ypres. Really highlights how totally desperate things were. The death of the old regular army. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerrymurland Posted 6 January , 2011 Share Posted 6 January , 2011 Michelle Many thanks - 1st Ypres is quite complicated enough without authors making it more so! The breakdown of the battle I originally completed for my own reference but on reflection felt it would be a useful adittion to the text. Initially it was an appendix but then it was moved into the body of the text. 1st Ypres certainly was a desperate period in the Great War - I had some idea before I began the book but reading letters written by John Lee Steere and diary entries from individuals such as Regy Wyndham and Bernard Gordon Lennox, the severity of the casualties becomes more apparent. Next time you are at Ypres call in to the Zillebeke churchyard and say hello! Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 6 January , 2011 Admin Share Posted 6 January , 2011 Jerry I am very glad it is in the main body- sometimes things tend to get lost in appendeces. I will do my best to go back to Zillebeke when I get the chance to go over next and say hello; I haven't visited the men there for some time sadly. Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_web Posted 12 February , 2011 Author Share Posted 12 February , 2011 An article by Jerry Murland about his research in to the CWGC graves in the Zillebeke churchyard that was published in the latest edition of the WFA Stand To! magazine is now available of the WFA website :- http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-people/cemeteries/1664-the-aristocrats-cemetery-at-zillebeke.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordonkingston Posted 7 June , 2011 Share Posted 7 June , 2011 Just finished this book - I've already read Robert Lloyd, Sir Morgan Crofton and Sir George Arthur on the same events and subject matter, but not one of them gave me as clear a picture of the life (and the often relentless death) of members of the Household Cavalry in 1914. From the quoted diary of Regy Wyndham (Lloyd's 1st Life Guards' 'Sinbad the Sailor'), for example; 'A lovely sunny morning, the day went well until the afternoon. Suddenly they began shelling us with big shells shewing [sic] a greenish smoke. They hit our emplacements time after time. Then they shouted to me two men were hit at the other end of the trench. Both men were named Smith. One was hit through both thighs, and the skin of his testicle bag was carried away. His pants and drawers were soaked with blood. The wound in his left thigh, where the wound left by the fragment of shell that had been through him, was 5 inches X 3 inches. It was an awful wound to manage, but neither leg was broken … Went to Dawes' trenches and found Lawson was hit through the head. Dawes said the body was warm, but we could see he was dead as his jaw had dropped … While I was bandaging the bad Smith a big shell fell just where I had been sitting, and one [piece] of it smashed through Groves' water bottle … and fragments fell on Groves.' As the first man on the topic says; highly recommended. Well worth buying. Gordon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Michelle Young Posted 7 June , 2011 Admin Share Posted 7 June , 2011 I walked some of the ground mentioned in the book last month; well worth a visit Michelle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helpjpl Posted 11 January , 2016 Share Posted 11 January , 2016 Any mention of Richard William Levinge 10th bart, 1st Life Guards? He served with Jack Althorp, Richard Vincent Sutton and Reggie Wyndham and was KIA at Zandvoorde on 24 October 1914. JP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldstreamer Posted 18 January , 2016 Share Posted 18 January , 2016 Or a list of all those 17 the book refers to would be good cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 18 January , 2016 Share Posted 18 January , 2016 Or a list of all those 17 the book refers to would be good cheers CWGC website advanced search, enter Zilebek into the cemetery box... see here for results: Any mention of Richard William Levinge 10th bart, 1st Life Guards? He served with Jack Althorp, Richard Vincent Sutton and Reggie Wyndham and was KIA at Zandvoorde on 24 October 1914. JP Yes.... five mentions although he is not one of the subjects of the book. It is now available on Kindle for £5.99. Searchable. I am a big fan of Jerry's work. He certainly does the hard yards on the research front. Well worth buying. MG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coldstreamer Posted 18 January , 2016 Share Posted 18 January , 2016 or even Zillebeke .... not as above http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1 and one was a Coldstream NCO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Pegum Posted 24 January , 2016 Share Posted 24 January , 2016 Any mention of Richard William Levinge 10th bart, 1st Life Guards? He served with Jack Althorp, Richard Vincent Sutton and Reggie Wyndham and was KIA at Zandvoorde on 24 October 1914. JP I'm glad you asked! It so happens that a biography of Sir Richard Levinge - see below - as well of Reggie Wyndham, appears in my recent book 'Our Fallen Members. The War Casualties of the Kildare Street and Dublin University Clubs'. They were both members of the Kildare Street Club in Dublin There are 45 other biographies, covering the period from October, 1914 to April, 1945. The bizarre thing about Sir Richard Levinge's death is that, after he was buried on the battlefield, he had to be dug up again the next night, as he had been carrying his squadron's pay in his pocket, and the money had to be retrieved! The World War I names are, in chronological order by date of death: George Brooke, Irish Guards The Hon. Charles Henry Stanley Monck, Coldstream Guards Sir Richard Levinge, Bt., Life Guards Alexander Moore Vandeleur, Life Guards (father of Giles, and uncle of J.O.E. Vandeleur, of 'A Bridge Too Far' fame)) Kenneth Ronald Mathieson, Irish Guards Edward Charles Stafford-King-Harman, Irish Guards The Hon. William Reginald Wyndham, Life Guards Richard Francis Robert Nugent, Scots Guards Robert St.John Blacker-Douglass, M.C., Irish Guards Robert McGregor Bowen-Colthurst, Leinster Regiment (brother of John B-C, who had Francis Sheehy-Skeffington shot during the Easter Rising in Dublin, William Edward Parsons, Earl of Rosse, Irish Guards Edmond Chomley Lambert Farran, Royal Irish Rifles William Jeffrey Davis, King’s Royal Rifle Corps Robert Maxwell Pike, Royal Flying Corps Thomas Pakenham, Earl of Longford, General Staff Charles Annesley Acton, Royal Welch Fusiliers Frederick Arthur Bligh, Royal Field Artillery Francis William Joseph MacDonnell, West Yorkshire Regiment Frederick Henry Lewin, Connaught Rangers James Rowan Shaw, Cheshire Regiment Francis Henry Browning, Irish Rugby Football Volunteer Corps (President of the I.R.F.U., who was shot during the Easter Rising) James Fitzgerald Bannatyne, 11th (Prince Albert’s Own) Hussars William Magee Crozier, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Arthur Robert Moore, M.C., Royal Fusiliers John Staples Molesworth Lenox-Conyngham, Connaught Rangers (C.O. 6th Battalion, killed on the Somme) James Kenneth MacGregor Greer, Irish Guards Harold Martin Cliff, Royal Dublin Fusiliers Robert Thomas Carew, Leinster Regiment Arthure Benedict Edward Hillas, Gordon Highlanders Maurice Cane, Royal Field Artillery Edmund Richard Meredith, British Red Cross Martin Hogan, South Irish Horse (the only one not an officer) Augustus Blair Mayne, Royal Field Artillery Percival St.George Findlater, Army Service Corps John McDonnell, Leinster Regiment (whose only son was killed in WW II, and also appears in the book) There are also the biographies of twelve men who died in WW II, including a winner of the V.C., a winner of the D.S.O. and Bar, and one who was murdered on the River Kwai. Am I permitted to say where the book may be obtained? Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelcave Posted 25 January , 2016 Share Posted 25 January , 2016 After that impressive list, why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin kenf48 Posted 25 January , 2016 Admin Share Posted 25 January , 2016 After that impressive list, why not? Until 6pm tonight £5 winter sale price at N & MP http://www.naval-military-press.com/aristocrats-go-to-war-uncovering-the-zillebeke-cemetery.html usual caveat posted for information no connection etc etc Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Pegum Posted 25 January , 2016 Share Posted 25 January , 2016 "Am I permitted to say where the book may be obtained?" usual caveat posted for information no connection etc etc Ken That's a 'No', isn't it? Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archangel9 Posted 25 January , 2016 Share Posted 25 January , 2016 Go ahead Michael. No reason not to. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin kenf48 Posted 25 January , 2016 Admin Share Posted 25 January , 2016 That's a 'No', isn't it? Michael er,no I just posted because the sale ends today (in 10 minutes), post away as above no reason not to. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Pegum Posted 25 March , 2016 Share Posted 25 March , 2016 Go ahead Michael. No reason not to. John The book is available from Dubray Books (Google them), and I'm afraid it costs €50. It is a hard-back of 473 pages, with hundreds of illustrations. It is published by a Dublin club and sold at cost price, so there is no profit to me or the Club! It includes the biographies of twelve men who died during World War II: The Hon. Christopher Furness, V.C., Welsh Guards (killed in the retreat to Dunkirk) Peter Raleigh Howe Browne, Royal Irish Fusiliers (killed in the retreat to Dunkirk) Richard Edmund Dease, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Robert Edward McDonnell, 8th (Royal Irish) Hussars (killed in Libya) Edward Peter Godfrey Eustace Nettlefold, Royal Artillery The Hon. Brinsley Sheridan Bushe Plunket, R.A.F. Volunteer Reserve The Hon. Arthur Patrick Spencer Chichester, Coldstream Guards (killed on Longstop Hill, Tunisia) Stanley Rhodes Armitage, Royal Artillery (beaten to death at Kanburi, on the river Kwai) Robert Vesey Stoney, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Arthur Onslow Edward Guinness, Viscount Elvedon, Royal Artillery (killed by a V1 near Arnhem) Henry Charles Hugh FitzHerbert, Irish Guards William Anthony Sheil, C.B.E., D.S.O & Bar, Royal Artillery (C.R.A., 51st Division, killed by a mine eight days before the end of the war in Europe) Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now