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Kensington Battalion:'never Lost a Yard of Trench'
Author(s): G. I. S Inglis (Author)
- Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
- Publication Date: 27 Oct. 2010
- Edition: First Edition
- Language: English
- Print length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 1848842473
- ISBN-13: 9781848842472
Book Description
Raised by the Mayor of Kensington, the 22nd Royal Fusiliers (the Kensington Battalion) were a strange mixture of social classes (bankers and stevedores, writers and labourers) with a strong sprinkling of irreverent colonials thrown in.Such a disparate group needed a strong leader and, luckily, in Randle Barratt Barker, they found one, first as their trainer and then as the Commanding Officer.As this superb book reveals The Kensington Battalion had a unique spirit and given their ordeals they needed this. They suffered severely in the battles of 1917 and, starved of reinforcements, were disbanded in 1918. Yet thanks to a strong Old Comrades Association, a special magazine Mufti, welfare work and reunions the Battalion s close spirit lived on.The author has successfully drawn on a wealth of first hand material (diaries, letters and official documents) as well as interviews from the 1980s to produce a fitting and atmospheric record of service and sacrifice.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Geoff Inglis was educated at Alloa Academy, and read Astronomy at St Andrew’s before gaining a teaching diploma at Glasgow University. Despite these qualifications he has pursued a career in market research. His interest in military history began as a pastime but rapidly developed into a passion. The Great War became his specialist area and in the 1980s he began an evening degree at North London Polytechnic. The activities of the Kensington Battalion caught his imagination and this book is the result.
He has published a number of social history articles and short stories and co-edited with Gary Sheffield the letters of Christopher Stone (From Vimy Ridge to the Rhine: The Great War Letters of Major Christopher Stone DSO MC, Crowood, 1989).
