Who was Siegfried Sassoon?
Poet and Writer.
Date and Place of Birth:
8th September 1886, Brenchley, Kent, England.
Christened Siegfried Louvaine Sassoon.
Family Background:
Second of three sons of Alfred Sassoon who was
from a family descended from oriental Jews and Theresa Thorneycroft
from a family of artists.
Education:
Marlborough School. Clare College, Cambridge.
(Studied law and history but left before he completed his degree).
Chronology/Biography of Siegfried Sassoon:
After leaving Cambridge University he lived the
life of a country gentleman and filled his days engaging in sports
and writing poetry. His verses were not noticed either by the critics
or the book buying public.
1914: Joined up
on the 2nd August two days before the Outbreak of the First World
War as a cavalry trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry.
1915: Became an
officer in the Royal Fusiliers and was posted to the Western Front.
He was christened "Mad Jack" by the other soldiers as
they thought him recklessly brave. (November 1st) His younger brother
Hamo was buried at sea after being mortally wounded at Gallipoli.
1916: (March 18th)
Second Lieutenant David Thomas (Dick Tiltwood of "Memoirs of
a Fox Hunting Man") was killed whilst out with a wiring party
on the Western front. He was awarded the Military Cross for bringing
back a wounded man to safety under heavy gunfire when his platoon
was involved in a raid on the Kiel trench. During the first day
of the Battle of the Somme he was held in reserve in support trenches
opposite Fricourt. He was moved up to the front on July 4th. After
being recommended for another decoration he was finally sent home
in late July suffering from Trench fever. Whilst on a visit to London
with Robert Ross he was introduced to Arnold Bennet
and H.G. Wells. He reported back for duty
at Liverpool in December.
1917: (February)
He returned to the front but was struck down by German Measles.
(April) Once recovered he was wounded in the shoulder at the Second
Battle of the Scarpe. and sent back to England. Whilst recuperating
he talked to several prominent pacifists including Bertrand Russell.
He became outspoken about the way the British military establishment
were running the war and published a "Soldier's Declaration"
which stated that the war was deliberately being prolonged. This
hostility was also reflected in his poetry. His graphic and satirical
style caused controversy when his first collection "The Old
Huntsman" was published. He was so maddened by what was happening
that he threw away his Military Cross. Robert Graves managed to
avoid Sassoon receiving a Court Martial and he was sent to Craiglockhart
Hospital in Edinburgh suffering from shell shock. Here he met Wilfred
Owen. (November) He was passed fit for duty
once more and returned to the regimental depot.
1918: (January)
He was posted to Limerick. (February) He was posted to Palestine.
(May) Posted back to the Western Front in France near Mercatel then
on to St Floris. (July 13th) His old foolhardiness had returned
and he attacked a German trench with no other support than a single
Corporal. He was wounded in the head and invalided back to England.
Publication of "Counter Attack" poems caused further controversy.
Despite his attacks on authority he was sent back to the fronts
in France and Palestine where further injuries forced him to return
to England for good. In the years following the war he wrote three
semi-autobiographical works and three volumes of autobiography.
He spent a short period as literary critic of the Daily Herald newspaper
but gradually went back to being a country gentleman.
1919: He had been
officially on Sick Leave at the end of the war and was finally discharged
in March. During this period Sassoon met many other men of letters
including Thomas Hardy in Dorset, Walter
de la Mare and T.E. Lawrence.
He became Literary Editor of the Daily Herald for a short while.
The next five years he spent mainly living in London but with extensive
lecture tours of the United States and many parts of Europe.
1928: Began work
on his autobiography which ran to six volumes of semi-fictional
prose.
1936: Birth of his
son George.
1937: Publication
of "The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston", his autobiography.
1945: He was not
called up for, military service during the Second World War but
lived peacefully at his home Heytesbury House in Wiltshire where
he was to remain until his death.
1948: Wrote a biography
of George Meredith.
1956: Published
"Sequences" a book of poetry which is spiritual in tone.1957:
He became a Roman Catholic.
Written Works:
- 1917:
“The Old Huntsman”.
- 1918:
“Counter Attack”.
- 1919: “The
War Poems”. "Picture Show".
- 1926:
“Satirical Poems”.
- 1928: “The Heart's
Journey”.
- 1930:
“Memoirs of an Infantry Officer”.
- 1933:
“The Road to Ruin”.
- 1935:
“Vigils”.
- 1936:
“Sherston's Progress”.
- 1940: “Rhymed
Ruminations”.
- 1947: “Collected
Poems”
- 1956: "Sequences".
Marriage:
1933 to Hester Gatty.(Divorced 1945)
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
The British Library
The Imperial War Museum
KENT:
Folkestone Museum and Sassoon Gallery, 2 Grace
Hill Folkestone, CT20 1HD
Date and Place of Death:
1st September 1967, Heytesbury, Wiltshire, England.
Age at Death:
81.
Site of Grave:
St Andrews Church, Mells, Somerset, England.
