Hidden away in the back of an old desk drawer was a dusty pile of
school-style exercise books. In them were the recollections of a young
officer who had fought with the Essex Regiment in the First World War
from the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915, through the mud and misery of
Ypres, to see victory in 1918. Discovering the memoirs of Lieutenant
Robert D'Arblay Gybbon-Monypenny was not the only surprise, what was
even more remarkable was how well-written they were, how vividly life
and death in the trenches was portrayed.
That life in the trenches saw Robert hit by a sniper's bullet, buried in
appalling mudslides, choked in a chlorine gas attack and almost
bayoneted by one of his own men, driven insane by the perpetual
shelling. Inevitably, he was wounded as he led his men over the top at
Arras, yet somehow he survived.
To add to these riches were letters home from both Robert Moneypenny and
his brother, and fellow officer, Phillips, who won the Military Cross
with the Royal West Kent Regiment, but who was killed just four months
before the end of the war.
The collection of memoirs, letters and personal photographs are woven
together to produce a gripping and powerfully frank testimony - one that
will come to be recognized as amongst the finest personal accounts of
the First World War ever to be published.
