Book Description

This is an impressive history by the most prolific author of Great War divisional and regimental histories, a fine tribute to a regiment that contributed 49 battalions to the nation s war effort, 26 of them served overseas, including the 2nd Battalion which was in India in August 1914 and remained there throughout the war. It is also a tribute to the author who died in 1933, before he could finish the third volume; the final few chapters were completed by Capt W. Synge of the 1st Battalion. All 23 front line battalions served on the Western Front, one of them (14th) in Salonika as well. The Roll of Honour lists 14,200 dead, six VCs were won, one of them by an officer (Capt O.A.Reid) attached to another regiment, and 58 Battle Honours were awarded. This work is set out in chronological order, each volume dealing with a specific period and ending with the Roll of Honour for that period and citations for any VC. Dates are in the margin and so is the identification of the battalion involved in the action being described. Volume 1 (xiv + 237pp with 10 photos and 8 maps) carries the story from mobilization to the end of 1915, by which time fourteen battalions had joined the Old Contemptibles of the 1st Battalion in the BEF, and one of these had gone on to Salonika. It has a very useful appendix listing every battalion and where it served and when. Volume 2 (vii + 250pp with 8 photos and 8 maps) takes the narrative through 1916 to 30 June 1917 and the Arras offensive; the final volume (vii + 370pp with two photos and 5 maps) completes the story beginning with Third Ypres and ending with a very brief chapter on the 2nd Battalion in India. As it may be imagined, there is plenty of detail in a history so generous with space as this, with its three volumes, and the narrative is supported with clear maps.