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British Army Manuals (1914-18) British Army Manuals, Text Books and Handbooks (1914-1918)   129 Books
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A Subaltern's Share in the War: Home Letters of the late George Weston Devenish, Lieut. R.A., Attached R.F.C. Intro. & Notes by Mrs. Horace Porter. 1st Ed., xviii+178pp., portrait frontis., 4 plates. Constable. 1917  #67360
[HLMainPic] George Weston Devenish was born in 1893, educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, receiving his commission (Royal Horse and Field Artillery) in July 1913. To France in September 1914, joining 6th Battery, 40th Brigade R.F.A., 3rd Division, on the Aisne. He was wounded near his Observation Post at Fauqissart, 28th October 1914, proceeded to France again in June 1915 and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in April 1916; he spent four months as an artillery observer then underwent pilot training. He was killed in action with 35th Squadron, shot down in flames, on 6th June 1917, and is commemorated on the Arras (Flying Services) Memorial. He was twenty-three. Contains lengthy extracts from entertaining and informative letters describing his active service experiences in Flanders and later over the Western Front. Orig. paper covd. boards, sympathetically rebacked in grey cloth, VG thus. See illustration on our website.   £145
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  #67570
[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, little rubbed & bumped, VG & rare. See illustration on our website.   £145
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
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
Kenneth Gordon Garnett MC, RFA, 30 July 1892-22 August 1917. 1st Ed., 62pp., portrait frontis., 11 plates. Privately printed at the Chiswick Press. 1917  #67100
[HLMainPic] A memoir by his Mother with selections from his letters from the Front followed by customary extracts from obituaries & letters of condolence. Garnett was born in 1892, Ed. at St. Paul's School & Trinity College Cambridge (rowed in the triumphant boat in the 1914 boat race). He was commissioned in the Royal Field Artillery in Jan. 1915 & proceeded to France the following month, only to be accidentally wounded in March. He returned to the Front in Oct. 1915 & spent the winter in the Ypres Salient then, on 24th August 1916, during a bombardment of Delville Wood, he was shot in the neck & paralysed. He was convalescent in England for a year before his death from a relapse of his spinal wound & is buried in Wandsworth (Putney Vale) Cemetery. Orig. brown paper covd. boards with wheat cloth backstrip, titled in black to front & spine, ink stain at foot of front board, o/w VG. See illustration on our website..   £125
A Scholar's Letters from the Front: Written by Stephen H. Hewett, 2nd Lieut. in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. With an Intro. by F.F. Urquhart, Fellow of Balliol College. 1st Ed., xviii+114pp., portrait frontis. Longmans, Green & Co. 1918  #67103
[HLMainPic] Stephen Henry Philip Hewett was born in India in 1893 (his father was in the Indian Telegraph Service), educated at Downside & Balliol College, Oxford: completing his third year in 1914 he went to Savoy for the summer where he witnessed the French mobilization and made his way home, commissioned in 11th (S) Bn. Warwickshire Regiment, but kept back when the Battalion went overseas, he eventually joined the 14th Battalion – the First Birmingham City Battalion – at the Front in February 1916 & was KiA leading his platoon in an attack between High Wood and Delville Wood on 22nd July 1916. He was twenty-three & is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. The book consists of lengthy 'diary letters' to his mother together with those to his sisters and various friends, containing, inter alia, affectionate descriptions of characters such as one Latham, the company officers' cook, and his horror at the first casualty he encountered: "his young freckled face was horribly smashed in by a bullet… I was severely shaken; but one has to get callous both in mind and body, and one does: and an hour's sleep revived me." Orig. paper covd. boards & cloth backstrip with paper label, eps rather browned, somewhat rubbed/worn, generally VG. See illustration on our website.   £145
Corps Extracts. "A" and "Q" Branch Headquarters, Cavalry Corps. January, 1916. 2nd Ed., orig. buff printed card wraps., 40pp. + blank interleaves. Printed by Harrison & Sons for HMSO. 1916  #61040
[HLMainPic] These 'extracts' from Cavalry Corps standing orders relate to Commissions & Cadet School (with details of how candidates may become eligible for commissions in various branches of the service; how the commissions should be applied for & details of the establishment of the officer Cadet School in France ["Classes are received fortnightly, & the duration of the course is about one month..."] &c). Also contains details re promotions, reporting of casualties, guidance on courts martial, billeting, civilian claims against damages to billets &c. Much of interest on these various non-operational yet essential matters. Very nice condition, this copy with around 20 signatures of members of Cavalry Corps HQ, ranging from the GOC, Lt.-Gen. Sir Cecil Edward Bingham [who relinquished command of the Corps in March 1916, which neatly dates these inscriptions to early 1916, soon after this issue was published], Brig. Home (BGGS), Brig. Longmore (DA&QMG) & various lesser functionaries. VG & rare. See illustration on our website.   £145
Henry Dundas, Scots Guards: A Memoir. 1st Ed., xv+253pp., portrait frontis. Blackwood. 1921  #67352
[HLMainPic] Henry Lancaster Nevill Dundas was born in 1897 at Edinburgh, Ed. Eton & commissioned in the Scots Guards in Sept. 1915. He joined the 1st Bn. in France in June 1916, serving with them up until his death (apart from some time attached to Brigade Staff) and was awarded the MC and Bar. Dundas was KiA on 27th September 1918 during the attack on the Hindenburg Line (his Commanding Officer wrote "Death was practically instantaneous, and he could have suffered no pain. He was shot by a sniper, the bullet going through his heart") and is buried in Hermies Hill British Cemetery, between Bapaume and Cambrai. He was twenty-one years old. Memoir consisting mostly of his interesting letters 1916-18, describing aspects of trench warfare such as raids and patrols and presenting an authentic veteran's view of the Western Front including the Somme and Passchendaele. Also various letters of condolence, including one from J.M. Barrie. Orig. blue cloth, gilt, sp. dull, little wear, generally VG & scarce. See illustration on our website.   £100
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
Letters from Mesopotamia in 1915 & January 1916 from Robert Palmer, who was Killed in the Battle of Um El Hannah, June 21, 1916, Aged 27 Years. 1st Ed., 134pp., several sketches. Printed for Private Circulation. nd. [1916]  #67359
[HLMainPic] Robert Stafford Palmer was the son of the 2nd Earl of Selborne, K.G., G.C.M.G., P.C., and the Countess of Selborne, of Blackmoor, Liss, Hants. He was Ed. at Winchester and University College, Oxford (President of the Union), travelled in India and worked in the East End boys clubs. Commissioned in the 6th (Territorial) Battalion Hampshire Regiment, he accompanied the battalion to India in 1914 and was attached to the 1st/4th Battalion in Mespotamia in August 1915. He was severely wounded in a charge at the Battle of Umm-Al-Hannah on 21st January 1917, picked up by the Turks & tended in their hospital but died the same day. He was twenty-seven and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial. This memorial contains detailed letters throughout the time he was at the front, several with sketches of trenches at Amarah. Letters of condolence & notes concerning the battle in which he died also included. Orig. blue cloth with paper sp. label, minor wear, VG. See illustration on our website.   £165

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