Turner Donovan Military Books - The world’s finest selection of rare and out-of-print books on British military history from 1800 to 1945
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Great War Memorial Volumes Great War Memorial Volumes   86 Books
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Letters & Memorials of Captain William A. Douglas, 6th Bn. The Royal Scots. With a Preface by the Rev. James Black, Broughton Place U.F. Church, Edinburgh. 1st Ed., viii+255pp., 192x133mm, portrait frontis., 32 photos. Edinburgh: Printed and Published by Andrew Brown. 1920  #66059
[HLMainPic] William Anderson Douglas was born in 1890 and educated at George Watson's College, Edinburgh, becoming an electrical engineer employed by James Gray & Son, Ironmongers. He was a pre-war Territorial officer in the 6th Royal Scots and mobilized with that unit in 1914, initially to Inchkeith in the Firth of Forth, then to Egypt 1915-16 and finally to the Western Front in May 1916 where he was killed in action during the night of 24th August, commanding an entrenching party about 1000 yards south-south-west of Guillemont. Captain Douglas was commanding "W" Company at the time of his death; he has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He was twenty-six years old. Detailed letters (mostly wriiten to his mother) describing the activities of the Western Frontier Force in the Egyptian Desert (at places better known in 1941-42: Mersah Matruh, Sollum etc.), then for several months in France. These are followed by obituaries and a selection of letters of condolence. Orog. purple cloth, gilt to spine and front sp. & edges sunned, o/w VG.   £165
Letters of an English Boy, Being the Letters of Richard Byrd Levett, King's Royal Rifle Corps, who Died for England, at the Age of Nineteen, in the Great War. March 10, 1917. [Compiled by his Mother, Mrs. Maud Sophia Levett.] xii+194pp., 9 plates (including portraits and facsimile bookplate). Eton College: Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd. 1917  #67099
[HLMainPic] Richard William Byrd Levett was born in 1898 & educated at St Peter's Court Preparatory School, Eton from 1911-15, then Sandhurst from November 1915 until he received his commission in July 1916. Posted initially to the 6th (SR) Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps at Sheerness then to the 1st Battalion (2nd Division) on the Somme Front in France in December 1916. He was appointed to command No. 8 Platoon in "B" Company, then briefly posted to command the 2nd Divisional Company, consisting of shoemakers, carpenters etc., but rejoined his platoon in time to take part in the attack at Irles on 10th March 1917. He was killed near Grevillers Trench by the British barrage, behind which the attack was following closely. He was nineteen and is buried in Albert Communal Cemetery Extension. Contains interesting, observant & atmospheric letters from the Front, recording his duties & surroundings including attendance at Anti-Gas School. For example, a letter dated 13th Jan. 1917, from "The Abomination of Desolation," describes the environs of Contalmaison at that time: "What I think it is most like is the most depressing view in the 'Black Country' that you can find. Take away all buildings and for cinders put brown earth all churned up into millions of shell holes & smashed up trenches. Cover the whole with thick mud – fill all depressions with water, scatter round thousands of empty beef tins, broken rifles, braziers, cart limbers, etc., pieces of men's clothing, boots and equipment & add a continuous roar of guns – there mustn't be a tree, a house or a bird in the scene, but just as far as you can see all round rolling mud covered with débris – well, you can't imagine now what it is like, but I can tell you it is horrible." Concludes with letters of condolence from brother officers, chaplain, his servant etc., an account of "The 'Bapaume Ridge' and the Taking of Irles" reproduced from the Morning Post and finally a letter to be given to his parents in the event of his death. Orig. olive cloth, gilt title to spine & front, corners dec. with enamelled bands in the colours of Eton College and the KRRC, book review to front paste-down, little rubbed & bumped, VG & rare. See illustration on our website.   £165
Roland Philipps, Boy Scout. 1st Ed., 38pp., 220x140mm, portrait frontis., photo. of his grave with the original wooden cross, 2 other plates. Roland House, Stepney. 1920  #66645
[HLMainPic] The Hon. Roland Erasmus Philipps, son of the 1st Viscount St Davids (and brother of Colwyn Erasmus Philipps: see above), was born in 1890 and educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. He took a very great interest in the Boy Scout movement, becoming Commissioner for East and North East London. He was gazetted to the 9th Battalion Royal Fusiliers in 1914, was wounded and awarded the Military Cross in the spring of 1916 and killed in action at Ovillers on 7th July 1916. He was twenty-six and is buried in Aveluy Communal Cemetery Extension. An account of his life and interests with several extracts from letters from the front, Orig. green cloth, gilt to spine and front. VG. A revised & enlarged edition was publish in 933, largely explaining post-war developments of Roland House. See illustration on our website.   £60
Letters of Ivar Campbell Written Between May 1915 & January 1916. 1st Eds., [iii]+106pp., portrait frontis. Privately Printed (by A.L. Humphreys). 1917  #66644
[HLMainPic] Ivar Campbell, son of Lord & Lady George Campbell, grandson of the 8th Duke of Argyll, was Ed. at Eton & Christ Church College, Oxford. He received a commission in 3rd (SR) Bn, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was attached to 1st Seaforth in France May 1915-Nov. 1915 when this bn. was posted to the Mesopotamian front. DoW received during the Battle of Sheikh Saad on 8/1/1916 & is commemorated on the Basra Memorial. "Letters" contains largely his letters from the Western Front, with the Indian Corps in the Bethune region & the Battle of Loos; thereafter a record of the move via Marseilles to Mesopotamia and arrival there: very soon after this he was killed. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, VG & scarce. See illustration on our website.   £145
James Lusk, BA (Cantab).; Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur; Captain & Adjutant 6th Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). Letters & Memories. 1st Ed., [vii]+151pp., portrait frontis., col. plate (of Legion d'Honneur). Oxford: Printed for B.H. Blackwell. 1916  #66642
[HLMainPic] James Lusk was commissioned in the 6th Cameronians in 1908, mobilised & served in France March-Dec. 1915. Memoir followed by extensive & interesting letters from training and the Front: wounded by a trench mortar on Christmas Day 1915 whilst going round his trenches & DoW 28/12/15. He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur at Festubert in June when he was Bn. Transport Officer & the bn. having lost heavily in officers he made his way up the line & helped reorganise. He was appointed adjutant after this battle. Orig. grey paper covd. boards with purple cloth backstrip, VG. See illustrations on our website.   £145
Captain Harvey Blease, 15th Battalion the King's Liverpool Regiment, attached 1/7th Lancs. Fusiliers. Killed in Action in Gallipoli, August 7th, 1915. 1st Ed., 67pp., 200x143mm, portrait frontis. No imprint or date [c.1916]  #66584
[HLMainPic] Harvey Blease was the son of Walter and Mary Blease, of Sefton Drive, Liverpool; husband of Helen Dorothy Stanley Blease, of Rostherne, Blundellsands, Liverpool, and was educated at Sedbergh School. He was killed in action at Gallipoli on 7th August 1915, aged thirty-two, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial. Contains his diary from 25th May 1915, embarking for the East, then on the Gallipoli peninsula from the beginning of July, where he was posted to the 1st/7th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers. Includes descriptions of the line, the incessant firing of artillery and snipers and so forth. After two weeks he went to Imbros for a short rest then returned to Gallipoli. The diary continues to 3rd August with interesting daily entries. Orig. grey card wrappers, titled to front "Diary of Captain Harvey Blease." VG & rare. See illustrations on our website.   £220
An Australian in the R.F.A., Being Letters & Diary of Adrian Consett Stephen, Lieut., R.F.A., MC, CdeG. 1st Ed., xviii+200pp., portrait frontis. Sydney: Penfold. 1918  #68457
[HLMainPic] Adrian Consett Stephen was ed. at Sydney Grammar School & St Paul's College in the University of Sydney. He graduated B.A. in 1913 and obtained his LL.B. in 1915. Had he not decided to enlist he would have been called to the Bar. However, he was commissioned in the RFA on 1st June 1915 and proceeded to France in August. He was initially attached to a Trench Mortar Battery, then to "D" Battery 242 Army Brigade R.F.A. Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1917, later awarded the MC during operations at Passchendaele (he was in temporary command of the battery for several months, with acting rank of Major). He was KiA 14th March 1918 & is buried in La Clytte Military Cemetery. A book of his dramatic compositions written before the war was published under the title 'Four Plays' by Penfold & Co. in 1918. Contains a lengthy obituary notice published in the Sydney Morning Herald, a Preface by his father & his letters from the Front from August 1915 onwards including a most interesting account of artillery work on the Somme, containing his impressions of the first day of the offensive, the attack at Pozières later in July and the capture of Thiepval on 26th September. In 1917 he was involved in the capture of Vimy Ridge and the Third Battle of Ypres. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, covers damp speckled o/w VG, inscribed "L.B. Heath in memory of his friend The Auithor." See illistration on our website.   £125
Letters written in the Trenches near Ypres between May & September, 1915, by H.M. Butterworth, 9th Rifle Brigade, who fell in action on September 25th, 1915. 1st Ed., 219x142mm, 84pp., portrait frontis. Wellington, NZ: Whitcombe & Tombs. 1916  #66577
[HLMainPic] Hugh Montagu Butterworth was Ed. at Marlborough & University College, Oxford, but left prematurely when his family emigrated to New Zealand. Became a schoolmaster at Wanganui College & returned to England in 1915 where he obtained a commission in the 9th (S) Battalion Rifle Brigade. He was killed in action during a diversionary attack near Ypres, in support of the Loos offensive, on 25th September 1915, has no known grave & is commemorated on the Menin Gate. He was twenty-nine. Memorial containing obituaries and tributes plus lengthy letters from the front during four months in the Ypres Salient, the last written before going into his last action: "I am leaving this in the hands of the Transport Officer, and if I get knocked out he will send it on to you. We are going into a big thing. It will be my pleasant duty to leap lightly over the parapet and lead D company over the delectable confusion of old trenches, crump holes, barbed wire, that lies between us and the Bosche, and take a portion of his line. Quo facto I shall then proceed to bomb down various communication trenches and take his second line. In the very unlikely event of my being alive by then I shall dig like blazes and if God is good, stop the Bosche counter-attack..." Orig. apple green cloth, titled in black to front board, little rubbed at extremities o/w VG & scarce. See illustrations on our website.   £220
James Colin MacLehose 2nd Lieut., Rifle Brigade 1897-1917. 1st Ed., 39pp., 5 portraits, 2 other plates. Glasgow: Printed for Private Circulation at the University Press. 1918  #67474
[HLMainPic] James Colin MacLehose was elder son of J.C. MacLehose, publisher to Glasgow University, and his wife Mary. He was educated at Rugby, 1911-16; from school he went to the 4th Officers' Cadet Battalion at Oxford, was commissioned in the Rifle Brigade in November and joined the 16th (Service) Battalion in France in January 1917. He was killed in action on 14th February – rather less than six weeks after arriving – his last words as he was wounded being "Carry on, men, carry on." He was leading a raiding party in a night raid east of Ypres and had not even reached the German wire when mortally wounded; the raid failed, the wire being uncut by the artillery preparation. He lies in Brandhoek Military Cemetery and was nineteen years of age. Contains a memoir of his life with recollections by contemporaries. Orig. brown paper covd. boards with leather lettering label to spine. VG. See illustration on our website.   £145
Letters of An American Airman: Being the War Record of Capt. Hamilton Coolidge, U.S.A., 1917-1918. 1st Ed., ix+231pp., silhouette frontis., 2 portrait photos. Boston: Privately Printed. 1919  #66511
[HLMainPic] Coolidge enlisted in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps at Key West in March 1917, graduated as a pilot & sailed overseas in July & after several months in France organising schools of aviation he joined the 94th Aro Squadron, USA, First Pursuit Group & downed eight EA/balloons until killed in action by ant-aircraft fire near Grand Pre on 27th October 1918. Posthumously awarded American Distinguished Service Cross, French Croix de Guerre & a unit citation. Letters written from July 1917 (sailing from Oyster Bay for France) up to the day before his death in action. Rare original edition, orig. paper covd. boards, dark blue cloth bacsktrip neatly replaced, gilt title to sp., additionally titled in gilt to front, inscribed in ink by a family member: "Geo. W. Martin from J.R.C. III March 1 1920." See illustrations on our website.   £225

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