Loading your reading…

One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk. — John Shaqi

History

One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk.

World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, British

CHAPTER III
  ONE YOUNG MAN IN CAMP                     21

                 CHAPTER IV
  ONE YOUNG MAN ON ACTIVE SERVICE           31

                 CHAPTER V
  ONE YOUNG MAN AT HILL 60                  41

                 CHAPTER VI
  ONE YOUNG MAN RECEIVES A LETTER           57

                 CHAPTER VII
  ONE YOUNG MAN IN THE SALIENT              65

                 CHAPTER VIII
  ONE YOUNG MAN'S SUNDAY                    71

                 CHAPTER IX
  ONE YOUNG MAN ON TREK                     79

                 CHAPTER X
  ONE YOUNG MAN ANSWERS QUESTIONS           91

                 CHAPTER XI
  ONE YOUNG MAN'S LEAVE                     99

                 CHAPTER XII
  ONE YOUNG MAN AGAIN IN THE TRENCHES      105

                 CHAPTER XIII
  ONE YOUNG MAN GETS A "BLIGHTY"           119




Introduces One Young Man




ONE YOUNG MAN




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCES ONE YOUNG MAN


The boys in the office were, I fancy, a bit prejudiced against him
before he arrived. It wasn't his fault, for he was a stranger to them
all, but it got about that the dear old "chief" had decided to engage
a real good Sunday-school boy. Someone had heard him say, or, more
likely, thought it would be funny to imagine him saying, that the
advent of such a boy might "improve the general tone" of the place.
That, you'll admit, was pretty rough on Sydney Baxter--the boy in
question. Now Sydney Baxter is not his real name, but this I can vouch
is his true story. For the most part it is told exactly in his own
words. You'll admit its truth when you have read it, for there isn't a
line in it which will stretch your imagination a hair's breadth. It's
the plain unvarnished tale of an average young man who joined the
army because he considered it his duty--who fought for many months.
That's why I am trying to record it; for if I tell it truly I shall
have written the story of many thousands--I shall have written a page
of the nation's history.

And so I need not warn you at the beginning that this book does _not_
end with a V.C. and cheering throngs. It may possibly end with wedding
bells, but you will agree there's nothing out of the common about
that--and a good job too.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

One young man : $b The simple and true story of a clerk who enlisted in 1914, who fought on the western front for nearly two years, was severely wounded at the battle of the Somme, and is now on his way back to his desk.

No reviews yet