Cornerstones

[Gareth Davies]

Cornerstones is another offering from the very excellent Helion https://www.helion.co.uk/review/product/list/id/24036/category/502/ and tells the story of Mynors Farmar. It is based on his letters home and his personal accounts. It is incredibly well researched.  

 

Harold Mynors Farmar was a professional soldier in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He fought in Sudan and South Africa pre-Great War. By 1915 he was the Staff Capt of the 86th Bde and he landed just after his old Bn did in April 1915. Later he served on Monash's staff at the same time that his elder brother was doing the very same role albeit it only level up in the Canadian Corps.

 

Recent reviews have included the following praise:

 

"Based on the private letters and papers of the author’s great-grandfather, this book is far more than just a family history. This is a meticulously researched and highly readable account of an engaging, intelligent and resourceful British staff officer caught up in the global wars of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries: from Omdurman to the Western Front. The index alone, detailing Farmar’s acquaintances, reads like ‘Who’s Who’; pointing to fascinating anecdotal evidence of some very well-known historical characters."

 

"The author is to be congratulated on producing a detailed survey of strategy, tactics and human tragedy."

 

"Cornerstones is a refreshingly vivid and rounded biographical account of an officer who served with distinction in the First World War. The context of Harold Farmar’s career, from the Victorian colonial wars through to the Great War was absorbing, though for me the account of his service during the Great War proved the highlight of the book."

 

I strongly recommend the whole book. In particular the section on Gallipoli is of note as it brings a new assessment of what was going on that morning.  

[Steven Broomfield]

Sounds interesting. I confess Gallipoli is not on my usual reading list but I might look this one out: the old pre-war Army fascinates me so seeing how a Regular officer copes with and reacts to the chaos of Gallipoli, followed by the - shall we say - more flexible approach of the Australians sounds interesting.

 

Thanks for highlighting this. I find Helion productions appear so thick and fast that I can't keep up!

[Dragon]

I think anyone who has discovered a bundle of letters, notes and documents saved by an ancestor will relate to the excitement of discovery and an emerging narrative. I admire the author for having the persistence to turn her quest, and her great grandfather's efforts, into a book. It sounds as if it would have widespread appeal to people interested in a range of themes, who, as they read on, would gain insights into the thinking and reflections of an experienced and perspicacious participant. I can't say that I know much about Gallipoli, and I know even less about Omdurman, but if a book is lucidly written I could be persuaded to give it a try.

 

Gwyn

[pjwmacro]

Cornerstones - Katherine Swinfen Eady. Published by Helion and Company

 

Published in 2019, Cornerstones, The Life of HM Farmer, from Omdurman to the Western Front is Katherine Swinfen Eady's first book. However, this certainly doesn't show; the writing is clear and concise and the story is well put together, with a combination of Katherine's own research, sensible interpretation and detailed quotes from Farmer's letters and subsequent writings.

 

Cornerstones should be required reading for all staff officers - but particularly those destined to work in an international/multi-national headquarters. It demonstrates, convincingly, the value of an effective staff, the importance of being able to work and maintain relationships up and down the chain of command, and the need for learning, interpretation and teaching. That said, the book offers something for almost everybody, particularly the magpies of military history. It ranges from the Sudan Campaign and Omdurman, via South Africa, through Gallipoli to the 1918 battles of the Western Front. As has been pointed out above, it particularly sheds new light on the Gallipoli landings of 86th Brigade on V, W and X beaches on 25 April 1915.

 

Cornerstones is also a love story. It tells not only of the love between Mynors Farmer and his wife, Violet, but how they held their relationship together through the most difficult of circumstances. And also how they gave their children some normality through those same circumstances. And it convincingly demonstrates Katherine's own love for her grandparents and the great-grandparents she never knew.

 

One note of caution. Do ensure you get a copy complete with the index. Some early run copies were printed without. These were supposed to have been destroyed but it appears at least some have made it onto the market.

 

In summary - highly recommended.

[Gareth Davies]

There is a review of Cornerstones in the latest edition of the Galiipolian and a copy of that review here:

 

http://www.redcoatandkhaki.com/our-services/book-reviews/cornerstones/

"Cornerstones is a fascinating book, an insight into the life of a clearly competent and experienced staff officer, a ‘cornerstone’ of the British Army.  Thoroughly recommended."