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Unknown Warriors
Extracts from the Letters of
K. E. Luard, R.R.C.
Nursing Sister in France
1914-1918
With a Preface By Field-Marshal Viscount Allenby, G.C.B.,
G.C.M.G.
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This is
the scarce 1930 First Edition (though in worn external condition,
with a damaged spine)
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"Removing the Wounded, 60 yards from the Enemy"
From the Picture by
H. S. WILLIAMSON
Front cover and spine
Further images of this book are
shown below
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Publisher and place of
publication
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Dimensions in inches (to
the nearest quarter-inch)
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London: Chatto & Windus
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4¾ inches wide x 7¼ inches tall
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Edition
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| Length
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1930 First Edition
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[xii] + 306 pages
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Condition of covers
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Internal condition
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Original brown cloth gilt. The covers are
heavily rubbed, particularly around the edges, and with some variation in
colour, while both spine gutters have been split from end to end but have
been partially re-glued by a former owner. The spine ends are bumped and
badly frayed with some loss of cloth while the corners are bumped and also
frayed (the front bottom corner being the worst). There is some old staining
to the spine and a forward spine lean. Finally, there is a faint shadow on
the front cover from the removal of an old "Boots Library" shield.
The images below give a good indication of the current state of the covers.
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There are a number of previous owner's names
and addresses inscribed in pencil and
ink on the front free end-paper (with the earliest dated "19.XI.32"). Apart
from these, the
text is clean throughout; however, the paper has tanned more or less evenly with age and there
is some generally light scattered foxing. There are remnants of a "Boots
Library" lending schedule on the rear pastedown, a narrow red mark on the
rear end-paper and a faint black mark on the underside of the text. The edge
of the text block is dust-stained and lightly foxed and the bottom edge is
not uniformly trimmed.
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Dust-jacket present?
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Other
comments
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No
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The Extracts from Kate Luard's Letters are now rare in the
1930 First Edition, but this
example suffers from obvious wear to the covers (including damage to the
spine ends and gutters) and some inoffensive old "Boots Library" markings;
the internal condition, however, once past the front end-paper names and
addresses, is quite clean.
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Illustrations,
maps, etc
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Contents
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There is a frontispiece and sketch map, both
shown below.
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Please see below for details
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Post & shipping
information
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Payment options
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The packed weight is approximately
600 grams.
Full shipping/postage information is
provided in a panel
at the end of this listing.
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Payment options
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UK buyers: cheque (in
GBP), debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard but
not Amex), PayPal
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International buyers: credit card
(Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal
Full payment information is provided in a
panel at the end of this listing.
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Unknown Warriors
Contents
I. WINTER UP THE LINE
Letters from Lillers, October 17th 1915 to April
25th 1916
II. ATTACKS ON VIMY RIDGE
Letters from Barlin, May 11th to July 3rd 1916
III. VIMY RIDGE— continued
July 11th to October 12th 1916
IV. BATTLE OF ARRAS
Letters from Warlencourt, March 3rd to June 3rd 1917
V. THIRD BATTLE OF YPRES
Letters from Brandhoek, July 23rd to September 4th
1917
VI. THE GERMAN ADVANCE
Letters from Marchelepot, Abbeville and Nampes,
February 6th. to April 6th 1918
VII. THE ALLIED ADVANCE
Letters from Pernois, May 13th to August 10th 1918
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Unknown Warriors
Excerpts:
. . . Another one was buried for 15
hours— he died this evening. A boy who was trephined on Saturday
night here, and has one eye destroyed and the other covered up,
never speaks, but kicks every stitch of clothing off and breaks out
into "Lead Kindly Light" and "God Save the King." To-night, when a
Frenchman in the next bed was raving, he trilled out, "Thy Kingdom
Come, O Lord" in a very sweet voice!
Tuesday night, May 23rd. The boy is now singing his hymns in Heaven.
Captain R. was called up directly we dispersed at midnight last
night and was operating all night and doing his dressings this
morning till 1. Operating continuously a day and a night takes a lot
out of you—and he had to be ordered off duty for 12 hours after
that. Two men died in the night and two more to-day, besides an
officer who died just after he was taken out of the Ambulance.
The big ward with beds all round and two lines down the middle is a
very sad place—quite full of wrecks—and not one of them ever well
enough even to speak to any other one. The next acute hut with beds
also is very busy with compound fractures, heads and amputations,
and some chests; but the worst chests, and the abdominals and the
bombed people with several serious wounds . . .
____________________________________________
. . . They were brought down by a
Boche Archie, and then the plane was shelled to bits on the ground,
but the officer and the man got away. The man is delirious from head
and face injuries, but the officer only had a broken wrist.
October 1st. The man with no eyes and no nose mercifully died
yesterday. My friend who says "Good-night, Mother" to me and is
going on the train to-day, said this morning he "would think of me
in terms of love till his dying day!" and he looked as if that day
wasn't very far off, poor old thing.
The Aeroplane man seems to be going to die. A baby Flying officer
who came to see him tonight fainted gracefully into my arms at the
foot of the bed, on to the floor, overcome by general fatigue, hot
day, and ward air after The Air.
We are trying to do a special rescue of a brave boy, H., hovering on
the edge of gas gangrene; I have him in a marquee and have to put
him into an iodine bath to-morrow. He dictated this afternoon, "Dear
Mother, just a few lines to let you know I am in the pink of health,
hoping it finds you the same." ("Mustn't let her worry," he
explained.) When asked if he had a best girl he said, "No, only
Mother"!
October 2nd. We have a sudden and
unprecedented lull just now, very few wounded coming in. I believe
they are taking the casualties we have always had to the nearest
C.C.S. of the 3rd Army, which adjoins us to our right. As we are
eight Sisters now instead of ten, this does no one any harm, while
it lasts.
The rescue of my boy H. is a tragic failure. He is dying of septic
pneumonia from a clot from his knee wound, after a triumphantly
successful cleaning up of the other wounds by the hip hath
treatment. He sat in it smoking cigarettes as happy as anything, and
now he is unconscious and babbling and quite hopeless. He is a very
gallant boy in the Drake Battalion. Three of his officers and his
Chief Petty Officer have been to see him.
Wednesday, October 4th. H. died yesterday morning.
In the afternoon J. and I went to Lillers in the lorry to fetch the
beer and coffins. It is a pleasant drive, about 15 miles. We did a
little shopping and looked up my various billet ladies (who were
most welcoming and voluble) and then went to tea with Mme. F. She
was very hospitable and affectionate. The house and garden and tea
seemed very civilised and clean and spacious . . .
____________________________________________
. . . An abdominal officer, Lt. S., 1/8th Middlesex, told me a few hours
before he died to "tell them I've got a slight wound." All the time
he thought of us and everybody but himself.
On the other side of the picture there are many glorious
"resurrections" smoking cigarettes and eating chicken and reading
magazines. They have lots of champagne and eggs and oranges and
jelly, and everything to make them buck up. It has been a fine sunny
day at last, but windy.
Sunday, April 15th. Early Service in the Church Tent at 7 a.m. The
Padre has made it very nice with a red and white reredos and our own
altar-cloth. It has a Communion-rail made of trees, and there is a
duckboard with stretcher pillows to kneel on.
The fine day was the usual solo. It has poured all day since 6.30
and the swamp squelches out loud. All the wounded to-night will come
in soaking wet.
We've had a very busy day, some of it very disheartening. They
haven't yet begun to take-in over the road, so we may have a free
night for once. The Theatre people have the longest hours, and for
the Surgeons the greatest strain of work, but for the Sisters it is
much less harassing and wearing than the work in the Wards, cutting
off the caked khaki and the clammy socks and heavy boots, with the
incessant cries of "Give me a drink" or "Sister, I do feel bad," and
the everlasting saline infusion and men being sick or delirious or
groaning or hemorrhaging. The younger Sisters who are new to this
kind of work send for me as if I was a kind of Travelling Rescue
Circus. We have been trying to keep a double amputation alive all
day; he said to-night after something he liked, "I was in 'ell and
am now in 'eaven."
Tuesday, April 17th. We have had a lull the last two days, and
everybody has been off duty long enough to go for a walk in relays
and pick Lent lilies, cowslips, and anemones. Operations and
funerals still continue, but the wards are not so full. I believe
another Stunt is expected to-morrow.
To-day we have had no bread, but only "dog-biscuits." At breakfast,
with no porridge, and at tea they are rather a blight, as they are
so hard they take hours to eat, but we manage to consume enough to
support life!
I got about 60 behind in writing Break-the-News Letters the first
few days of last week . . .
____________________________________________
. . . No mines have gone up yet.
6.30 a.m. We have just begun taking in the first cases. An officer
died soon after admission, between 4 and 5 a.m.
The Air people began streaming over at daylight adding their
whirring and droning to the din. The mines have been going off since
5 like earthquakes. Lots of high explosive has been coming over, but
nothing so far into this Camp. The uproar is almost stupefying. I'm
going now to see how they are getting on in the Preparation and
Resuscitation Hut.
Same day, 11 -p.m. We have been working in the roar of battle every
minute since I last wrote, and it has been rather too exciting. I've
not had time to hear any details from any of our poor abdominals,
but the news has been good till this evening: thousands of
prisoners—and Ypres choked with captured guns and ammunition, and
some few miles (?) of advance. This evening they tell of heavy
counter-attacks and some of our advance lost. He is not retreating
because he wants to, but is putting up a tremendous fight. One
Gunner Sergeant was pleased that he got his wound while dragging his
guns over No Man's Land in broad daylight. We put up a terrific
drumfire again this evening, and our monsters at our elbow are
cracking away now at a frightful pace. You get tired of being
violently jogged by the concussion every few seconds.
We have a lot of Germans in—all abdominals. Everything has been
going at full pitch—with the 12 Teams in the Theatre only breaking
off for hasty meals—the Dressing Hut, the Preparation Ward and
Resuscitation and the four huge Acute Wards, which fill up from the
Theatre; the Officers' Ward, the Moribund and the German Ward. That,
and the Preparation and the Theatre are the worst places. Soon after
10 o'clock this morning he began putting over high explosive.
Everyone had to put on tin-hats and carry on. He kept it up all the
morning with vicious screams. They burst on two sides of us, not
yards away—no direct hits on to us but streams of shrapnel, which
were quite hot when you picked them up. No one was hurt, which was
lucky, and they came everywhere, even through our Canvas Huts in our
quarters. Luckily we were so frantically busy that it was easier to
pay less attention to it . . .
____________________________________________
. . . I am writing this in my
extraordinarily cosy stretcher-and-mattress bed at 9.30 p.m., with
the comfortable knowledge of two feet of sandbags between me and
anything that may burst outside. Anything that may burst on top of
you, whether armour-piercing 9.2's like Tuesday's, or bombs from
above—you would know nothing about, as you'd merely wake to a better
and more peaceful world.
Shells were singing over last night but not too close. We are
bombarding rather sulkily to-night and may get anything in return.
I have only 4 Night Sisters on duty to-night instead of the usual 9.
It is no good worrying about patients or Sisters on duty: as long as
they put hospitals in such places they've got to be there, day or
night, and can't take any cover, and you can't cover 300 beds. It is
no good worrying over anything that you can't alter, so the whole
subject settles itself into a sort of fatalistic philosophy.
Three of the men we have in will die to-night, and there's a brave
Jock boy who's had a leg off and is to lose an arm and an eye
to-morrow who said, "If you write to Mother, make it as gentle as
you can, as she lost my brother in April, died o' wounds, and it
made her ill." If he wants a drink when you're busy with somebody
else, he says, "Carry on, I can wait." The "Prince of Wales" with
the subclavian artery died on the way to Poperinghe on Tuesday after
that awful day.
Tuesday night, August 28th. Terrific gale all day, straining our
Wards to their utmost limits. Each Ward is five big Marquees pitched
as one, and containing 34 beds. The sky has been a brilliant blue
since mid-day with dazzling Alpine banks of clouds, and it has been
as peaceful as Peace Time till this evening, when the wind has died
down and distant shells are travelling. This wind should help to dry
the ground a bit.
Friday, August 31st. We are having an extraordinarily slack and
quiet time, with a total Staff of 291 (including Labour Battalion)
and 18 patients! 12 Theatre Teams seem rather superfluous, but
events are waiting on the weather, which is, of course, hopelessly
vile. And in bad weather we see and hear very little of Fritz and
have had some peaceful nights and days; it is glorious to sleep from
12 to 6 without waking; we all feel quite different. It had been an
awful strain on the Surgeons with their close and critical work with
no decent sleep for several weeks. We couldn't have gone on
indefinitely with it . . .
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Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the
risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the
inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the
text and a
shadow on the inside edge of the final images. Colour reproduction is shown
as accurately as possible but please be aware that some colours
are difficult to scan and may result in a slight variation from
the colour shown below to the actual colour.
In line with eBay guidelines on picture sizes, some of the illustrations may
be shown enlarged for greater detail and clarity.
There are a
number of previous owner's names and addresses inscribed in
pencil and
ink on the front free end-paper (with the earliest dated "19.XI.32"). There
are remnants of a "Boots Library" lending schedule on the rear
pastedown, a narrow red mark on the rear end-paper and a faint
black mark on the underside of the text:
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U.K. buyers:
To estimate the
“packed
weight” each book is first weighed and then
an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging
material (all
books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer).
The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the
nearest hundred grams to arrive at the postage figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and
do not seek to profit
from postage and packaging. Postage can be combined for multiple purchases.
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Packed weight of this item : approximately 600 grams
Postage and payment options to U.K. addresses:
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Details of the various postage options can be obtained by selecting
the “Postage and payments ” option at the head of this
listing (above).
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Payment can be made by: debit card, credit
card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex ), cheque (payable to
"G Miller", please), or PayPal.
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Please contact me with name, address and payment details within seven days of the end of the listing; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the sale and re-list the item.
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Finally, this should be an
enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope
you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question
or query about any aspect (postage, payment, delivery options
and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me.
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International
buyers:
To estimate the
“packed
weight” each book is first weighed and then
an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging
material (all
books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer).
The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the
nearest hundred grams to arrive at the shipping figure.
I make no charge for packaging materials and do not
seek to profit
from shipping and handling.
Shipping can
usually be combined for multiple purchases
(to a
maximum
of 5 kilograms in any one parcel with the exception of Canada, where
the limit is 2 kilograms).
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Packed weight of this item : approximately 600 grams
International Shipping options:
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Details of the postage options
to various countries (via Air Mail) can be obtained by selecting
the “Postage and payments ” option at the head of this listing
(above) and then selecting your country of residence from the drop-down
list. For destinations not shown or other requirements, please contact me before buying.
Due to the
extreme length of time now taken for deliveries, surface mail is no longer
a viable option and I am unable to offer it even in the case of heavy items.
I am afraid that I cannot make any exceptions to this rule.
Payment options for international buyers:
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Payment can be made by: credit card (Visa
or MasterCard, but not Amex) or PayPal. I can also accept a cheque in GBP [British
Pounds Sterling] but only if drawn on a major British bank.
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Regretfully, due to extremely
high conversion charges, I CANNOT accept foreign currency : all payments
must be made in GBP [British Pounds Sterling]. This can be accomplished easily
using a credit card, which I am able to accept as I have a separate,
well-established business, or PayPal.
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Please contact me with name, address and payment details within seven days of the end of the listing; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the sale and re-list the item.
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Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for
both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal
with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (shipping,
payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact
me.
Prospective international
buyers should ensure that they are able to provide credit card details or
pay by PayPal within 7 days from the end of the auction (or inform me that
they will be sending a cheque in GBP drawn on a major British bank). Thank you.
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(please note that the
book shown is for illustrative purposes only and forms no part of this
auction)
Book dimensions are given in
inches, to the nearest quarter-inch, in the format width x height.
Please
note that, to differentiate them from soft-covers and paperbacks, modern
hardbacks are still invariably described as being ‘cloth’ when they are, in
fact, predominantly bound in paper-covered boards pressed to resemble cloth.
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Fine Books for Fine Minds
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I value your custom (and my
feedback rating) but I am also a bibliophile : I want books to arrive in the
same condition in which they were dispatched. For this reason, all books are
securely wrapped in tissue and a protective covering and are
then posted in a cardboard container. If any book is
significantly not as
described, I will offer a full refund. Unless the
size of the book precludes this, hardback books with a dust-jacket are
usually provided with a clear film protective cover, while
hardback books without a dust-jacket are usually provided with a rigid clear cover.
The Royal Mail, in my experience, offers an excellent service, but things
can occasionally go wrong.
However, I believe it is my responsibility to guarantee delivery.
If any book is lost or damaged in transit, I will offer a full refund.
Thank you for looking.
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Please also
view my other listings for
a range of interesting books
and feel free to contact me if you require any additional information
Design and content © Geoffrey Miller
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