Author: Stephen GrahamPublisher:
ISBN: 9781331204053
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374
Book Description
Excerpt from A Private in the Guards The fortune of war gave me eighteen months in the ranks in the Guards. I have thought I could perform no better service than describe the social life and the spirit in these historic regiments of the British Army. I should explain for those who do not know it, that the Bill Browns are the Grenadiers, the Jocks are Scots Guards, the Taffies are the Welsh Guards, the Micks are the Irish, and the Coalies are the Coldstream. Amongst the rank and file they are only referred to by their nicknames. So also in this book. An intense rivalry reigns amongst these regiments, and comparisons are nowhere more odious. The presence of the young Prince of Wales in the Grenadiers no doubt gave that regiment great prestige, but the Scots Guards yield to none. The record of each and all for the four years of conflict is most remarkable. However, it has not been the war which has been most interesting for me, but the men. We had amongst us a number of those American volunteers, the advance party of America's great manhood, who were feted in London in 1917, and I have used the point of view of these Americans and their adventures together with my own as a touch-stone for our Army institutions and customs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
