The Rt Rev Martin Patrick Grainge Leonard, DSO (Pat Leonard) was born in the village of Torpenhow in Cumberland on 5 July 1889. He was educated at the Grammar School in Appleby before going on to Rossall School and Oriel College, Oxford (on a mathematics scholarship). He then embarked on an ecclesiastical career and prior to the Great War was a curate in Manchester. Among his post-war jobs he spent fourteen years with the Toc H organisation. He subsequently became Rector of Hatfield, Rural Dean of Hertford, Provost of St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow and finally Bishop of Thetford. While at Oxford he demonstrated prowess in rowing and boxing and it is from the latter, rather from military action, that he got the nickname "The fighting Padre".

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, gazetted 14 November 1916 for his work during the fighting on the Somme: "For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty during protracted operations. He was always moving about among the wounded giving them encouragement. He assisted the medical officer in tending the wounded under heavy shell-fire, and on one occasion carried a wounded man himself on a stretcher. His gallantry and devotion to duty has been beyond praise". Pat was also mentioned in Sir Douglas Haig's Somme despatch, gazetted 4 January 1917.

The book is an edited collection of extracts Pat's letters arranged into chronological sequence. We do not find out who is he writing to nor when each letter was written. The narrative begins on 12 October 1915 when he has arrived in France, initially attached to 7th Field Ambulance RAMC but soon to be with the 8th (Service) Battalion of the King's Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment). Until mid 1916 the battalion remains in Flanders, taking Pat amongst other places to Ypres salient and the front line trenches of the Bluff as well as the rear areas of Bailleul, Poperinghe and the camps, headquarters and billets thereabouts.

Much of his reporting is of life behind the lines, giving us a glimpse of the concert parties and cinemas he helps to organise, visits to meet with Tubby Clayton at Talbot House (which would lead to his lifelong support of Toc H), as well as his ministry. I got the feeling that his descriptions of his front line activity and work with the wounded were self-censored, for it is generally of great cheer and avoids discussion of squalor and pain. But that is in itself the mark of a man who comes across throughout as positive and selfless.

His unit is moved into the key British offensives of the Somme in 1916 and Arras and Ypres in 1917. It was during the former that he won his DSO, but his action at that time appears typical of several occasions on which the same thing could have been said of him.

Pat's story takes an interesting twist in late 1917 when he his posted to an attachment with the Royal Flying Corps in Flanders. Initially acting as Chaplain for 7 and 9 Squadrons at Proven and 21 and 23 at La Lovie, he enjoys the rare experience of taking a flight. His ends the final weeks of the war in the advance across Flanders, entering Menin and occupying the former German airfield at Bisseghem.

Well worth reading.

A very good biography by John Leonard including some elements included in the book can be found free online here

I am indebted to the author, Felicity Jane Laws, for sending me a copy of one of the most interesting soldiers memoirs or diaries that I have read for a long time. The book is based on a well-observed diary kept by her uncle David Winder Small, illustrated by many documents and photographs from the family collection.

One of the factors that makes this diary stand out is that David Winder Small served as a motorcycle despatch rider of the Royal Engineers Signal Service, in the Signals Company of the 20th (Light) Division. As such, his war is not spent in the front line trenches but in the vital job of taking messages from Divisional HQ to the brigades and units of the Division, with occasional forays to Corps and other headquarters and units behind the lines. There are times when he is obliged to go to signals detachments in the front and support lines, too, and inevitably he loses comrades in action. David and the Division spent much time in the Flanders sector, taking him to Ypres, Poperinghe, Hazebrouck and many of the villages that will be well known to readers of this site. His diary offers a valuable insight not only into the working of the Signals Section and the "DR"s but of how a Division and all of its constituent parts actually functioned.

In 1916 he sustained a minor wound but problems developed leading to him being evacuated home for hospital treatment. On 1 August 1917 he was commissioned as an officer of the RE and returned to France in October 1917. He served thereafter with 12th and 24th Divisions, principally in the artillery signals, and on various other attachments. At busy times his diary reduces to notes, but for all that they retain a cheerful and fascinating character. As luck would have it he was evacuated home with blood poisoning just before the Armistice.

The author has illustrated the book with copies of many of David's war time documents (maps, orders, notes, and postcards) and ends with a series of photographs of his post war life. A very nicely produced and worthwhile work.

You can buy this book (printed on demand) from lulu.com but also direct from the author.

Send a cheque for £8.50 to her at 76 Commercial Road, Hayle, TR27 4DH

This is another reprint of a Great War 'classic' by Pen & Sword. Among my favorite memoirs of the war, this version also includes an introduction by the late military historian John Terraine. Well, not really a memoir as it was posthumously published from the author's diary.

The author served with the 1/8th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and this work covers eight months of their war in 1917, beginning with the cautious pursuit of the enemy withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line and going on to the searing experience of the Battle of Langemarck in August. Beautifully written and memorable, it deservedly became a classic when it was originally published in 1981, fifty years after the authors death. One of the "must reads" but particularly if you are interested in the Warwicks, the South Midland Division or Langemarck.