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BOLTON (E.J.)
Some Memories 1916-17.
1st Ed., vii+39pp. Printed by Waterlow & Sons. nd [1923].
#65997
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Introductory note explains that Eric John Bolton was born in 1897, Ed. at Sherborne & left to take up a commission in the Dorset Regiment. During the war he lost an eye & won the MC during the 3rd Battle of Ypres. This is not a Great War memorial volume as such, in that, although severely wounded, he survived the war, but his health broke down & he died in 1922. This MS. description of his active service was found among his papers. In it he describes events in France & Flanders 1916-17 with the 5th (S) Bn. Dorsets: the awful winter of 1916 when in the line: "there was not the least possibility of comfort or of sleep, so that 48 hours in the front line was as much as any man could stand. We officers had a slight pull; being out of direct rifle fire, we could squelch from post to post, thereby restoring a little warmth to our numbed feet... The darkness used to fall between four & five, & from then until dawn no officer or man in the front line might sleep... Every few hours a circle of blue faces & numbed hands would gather around a cooker & brew hot cocoa, & perhaps one of us would still have a little of his rum left. And then dawn slowly creeps into the sky to show a dead world; dawn, when rifles must be cleaned & the work started all over again..." Later, at Ypres, his wound: "a rifle grenade, which caught me full in the face. I remember carefully feeling my features one by one to see if there was anything left..." A concise but most interesting & exceptionally rare privately printed memoir. Orig. blue cloth, gilt title to front, VG with loosely inserted presentation letter from John Bolton, his father. See illustrations on our website.
£245
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