Counter-Attack: Biography of Siegfried Sassoon by Michele Fry

The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/all/20041015034215/http://www.sassoonery.demon.co.uk:80/

Although Sassoon wrote poetry before the War he was no more than a minor Georgian poet. His best poem prior to the War was The Daffodil Murderer - a parody of John Masefield's The Everlasting Mercy. Sassoon wrote The Daffodil Murderer one day in December 1913. He had been feeling particularly uninspired about his poetry, and was looking at the books on the shelves in his room out in the Studio when he picked up Masefield's The Everlasting Mercy. Sassoon sat down to attempt a parody and did it so well that it was a real success. Sassoon sent a copy of The Daffodil Murderer to Edmund Gosse. Gosse (1849 - 1928) wrote critical essays for the Sunday Times, poetry and several "Lives" including those of Gray, Donne, & Ibsen. He was an early influence on Sassoon in matters of literary taste, and his wife Tessa was a friend of Sassoon's mother. Gosse was impressed enough to send a copy to Edward Marsh. Marsh (1872 - 1953) edited five highly influential volumes of Georgian Poetry between 1912 and 1922 . He was a friend of many poets, including Rupert Brooke and Sassoon, he was one of Sassoon's first sponsors as far as publishing was concerned. Marsh was editor of the Georgian Poetry anthology at the time. Gosse asked Sassoon to send copies of his other poems to Edward Marsh. Marsh wrote to Sassoon and The Daffodil Murderer proved to be the start of a long friendship between the two men.

Sassoon enlisted on 2 August 1914, two days before the British declaration of war, and initially joined as a trooper in the Sussex Yeomanry. However, after a riding accident whilst doing some field-work (he had put his horse at a fence blind with summer vegetation and a hidden strand of wire brought the horse down on top of him, leaving Sassoon with a badly broken right arm), Sassoon was commissioned in the Royal Welch Fusiliers (May 1915). Between November 1915 and April 1917 he served as a second lieutenant in both the First and Second Battalions R.W.F.

On November 1, 1915 Sassoon suffered his first personal loss of the War. His younger brother Hamo was buried at sea after being mortally wounded at Gallipoli. Sassoon subsequently commemorated this with a poem entitled To My Brother (published in the Saturday Review, February 26, 1916). Then on March 18, 1916 second lieutenant David C. 'Tommy' Thomas (the 'Dick Tiltwood' of Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man) was killed whilst out with a wiring party. He had been hit in the throat by a rifle bullet, and despite the Battalion doctor being a throat specialist, had died of the wound.

These losses upset Sassoon and he became determined to "get his revenge" on the Germans. To this end, he went out on patrol in no-man's-land even when there were no raids planned. Such reckless enthusiasm earned him the nickname "Mad Jack", but he was saved from further folly by a four-week spell at the Army School in Flixecourt. Returning to the front a month later some of Sassoon's desire for revenge had abated, and when his platoon was involved in a raid on Kiel Trench shortly afterwards, his actions in getting his dead and wounded men back to the British trenches earned him a Military Cross, which he received the day before the start of the Battle of the Somme, in July 1916.

Sassoon was only back in France for two days before going down with German measles, which forced him to spend nearly ten days at the 25th Stationary Hospital in Rouen. On March 11 Sassoon rejoined the 2nd Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers on the Somme front. He was "in reserve" during the Battle of Arras before spending two days in the Hindenburgh Tunnel. Sassoon participated in the Second Battle of the Scarpe where he was wounded in the shoulder. This particular incident started a train of events which culminated in Sassoon's "Declaration", for it was whilst on convalescent leave after being wounded that Sassoon talked to several prominent pacifists (including John Middleton Murry and Bertrand Russell). His Declaration of "wilful defiance" was written during this time, and he returned to the Depot in Liverpool having sent his statement to his Colonel, miserably determined to take whatever punishment was meted out. Fortunately for Sassoon, his friend and fellow Welch Fusilier, Robert Graves. Graves (1895-1985) got to know Sassoon while serving out in France. The two became firm friends and spent hours discussing poetry. He was influential in saving Sassoon from a court-martial, following the latter's protest against the continuation of the War. Graves intervened, pulled strings with the authorities and managed to persuade them to have Sassoon medically boarded (or referred), with the result that in July 1917 he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh officially suffering from shell-shock.

It was at Craiglockhart that Sassoon met the poet Wilfred Owen. Owen (1893 - 1918) was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the 5th Battalion, Manchester Regiment. His experiences in France left him in a state of "shell-shock", and he was sent Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh where he met Sassoon. (Owen was also diagnosed with shell-shock). Sassoon's encouragement of Owen's writing has been well-documented. Sassoon himself wrote a good deal of poetry whilst at Craiglockhart and the material he wrote at that time later appeared in Counter-Attack and Other Poems. After four months at Craiglockhart, Sassoon was again passed fit for General Service abroad. He had spent many hours talking to his psychiatrist, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. Rivers (1864 - 1922) was transferred to Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh in 1916 and the following year Sassoon became his patient. Rivers's life was distinguished by work in a variety of fields besides medicine. Sassoon eventually realised that his protest had achieved nothing, except to keep him away from his men; his decision to apply for General Service seems to have been based on his perceived responsibilities at the front.

In November 1917 he was passed fit for General Service and returned to the Regimental Depot, from whence in January 1918, he was posted to Limerick. In February 1918, Sassoon was posted to Palestine with the 25th Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers. After three months in Palestine the Battalion was posted to France and Sassoon eventually found himself in the Front Line near Mercatel. From there he moved to St. Hilaire and the Front Line at St. Floris where his old foolhardiness took over, despite the responsibility of being a Company Commander. Sassoon decided to attack the German trenches opposite them, and he went out with a young Corporal. His actions were paid for with a wound to his head on July 13, 1918, and Sassoon was invalided back to England. That was the end of Sassoon's War. After a period of convalescence he was placed on indefinite sick leave until after the Armistice, eventually retiring officially from the Army in March 1919.

Much of Sassoon's poetry written during the War was epigrammatic and satirical in nature. Several poems, particularly those in Counter-Attack and Other Poems are aimed at those on the Home Front. Sassoon used his poems to hit out at those at Home whom he considered to be making a profit out of the War, or those whom he felt were helping to prolong the War. Only a few of his poems were actually about the generals and other senior officers - the two best-known of these being Base Details and The General.

In the immediate period after Sassoon's active service ended he spent several months meeting various famous writers. Sassoon was introduced to T E Lawrence shortly after his convalescence at Lennel House ended. Edward Marsh introduced the two men to each other at dinner at the Savoy. The three men spent a considerable part of the evening talking about C M Doughty. The very next day saw Sassoon's first visit to Thomas Hardy at his home in Dorset, Max Gate. Sassoon became a frequent visitor to Hardy until the latter's death. Shortly after the Armistice Sassoon visited John Galsworthy. Galsworthy had asked Sassoon to contribute a poem to a new magazine Reveille, which unfortunately only ran to three issues. Galsworthy's sympathetic manner made Sassoon feel like an impulsively informative nephew. A few days later Sassoon made a visit to Walter de la Mare and found him unmysterious (despite his imaginative writings), humorous and hospitable. In fact Sassoon considered de la Mare as homely and natural as Thomas Hardy.

In 1919 Sassoon spent a brief period as literary editor of the Daily Herald. It was during this time that he "discovered" Edmund Blunden. Blunden (1896 - 1974) is best known for his Undertones of War - a memoir of his FWW experiences in France. Blunden is largely underestimated today as a war poet, mainly because the work of other poets such as Owen, Rosenberg & Sassoon has eclipsed his work. Blunden sent to the Herald a copy of a privately printed volume of poetry. Sassoon immediately recognised Blunden's talent. The two also shared a love of cricket. Sassoon also engaged in a speaking tour in the United States and travelled the length and breadth of the country, speaking at clubs and in schools, and making friends. After a five year period spent mostly living in London, during which time he began work on his Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man (published 1928), Sassoon spent several years travelling abroad with a friend. During this time he became friends with Max Beerbohm and his wife, with whom he stayed on several occasions. Edmund Gosse had initially introduced Sassoon to Beerbohm - first by reading Sassoon extracts from Beerbohm's prose parodies in A Christmas Garland at a dinner at Gosse's home in Hanover Terrace whilst Sassoon was living in London prior to the outbreak of the War, and then later in person. Gosse did his best to introduce Sassoon to various people who might further the aspiring poet's career. He gave Sassoon a letter of introduction to Sydney Carlyle Cockerell, whom Sassoon had met whilst in Cambridge in 1915 for officer training.

After the War Sassoon spent most of the years between 1928 and 1945 writing his six volumes of autobiography. The first three volumes, collectively known as The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston included Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (1930) and Sherston's Progress (1936) as well as Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man. The "Sherston Memoirs" were the semi-fictional account of Sassoon's life. Sherston was based on Sassoon's outdoor self, omitting the literary side of his personality. Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man was actually published anonymously because Sassoon was worried about presenting himself to the reading public as a prose writer, when he was better known as a poet. The next three volumes of Sassoon's autobiography were The Old Century and Seven More Years (1938), The Weald of Youth (1942) and Siegfried's Journey (1945).

Sassoon married Hester Gatty in 1933, and their son, George, was born in 1936. Their marriage ended in 1945. He did not serve during the Second World War, but lived quietly at Heytesbury House in Wiltshire, where he died in 1967, one week short of his eighty-first birthday. He is buried at St Andrew's Church, Mells in Somerset.

If you are interested in reading some of Sassoon's war poetry visit Bill Bean's site.

Are you interested in joining the Siegfried Sassoon Fellowship, an international society which exists to promote the life and work of Siegfried Sassoon ? See the Fellowship home page for more information. The SSF will be holding an event (to include the AGM) on September 6, 2003 at the National Portrait Gallery, London. More information is available on the Fellowship home page.

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