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THE GUARDS CAME THROUGH
THE HISTORY OF THE GUARDS IN THE GREAT WAR
Published by Third Millennium - June 2016
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 The Guards Came Through, edited by Simon Doughty, Editor of The Guards Magazine, with an introduction by Professor Sir Michael Howard is the first single book about the Household Cavalry and the Foot Guards in The Great War to be published. It draws on numerous sources, some hitherto unpublished, and will be extensively and lavishly illustrated with archive and newly commissioned photography. An invaluable source for this book is The Guards Magazine and its predecessor The Household Brigade Magazine, providing contemporary accounts and personal stories that bring the narrative alive.
The two Regiments of the Household Cavalry (and the 1st Royal Dragoons, later incorporated), and the five Regiments of Foot Guards all fought, often side-by-side, in all the major battles of the war. Much was expected of the Guards, the senior regiments of the British Army. With their special qualities of unfailing discipline, devotion to duty, determination, and esprit de corps, the Guards were often given the most challenging of tasks during the war. Their fighting spirit proved an example to the wider Army, so much so that from their ranks were sought officers, warrant officers, and non-commissioned officers for transfer to other regiments.
The book takes its title from the poem written by Arthur Conan Doyle, first published in The Times in June 1917. The poem’s heroic style, more in the genre of Alfred Lord Tennyson than the First World War poets, such as Owen, Sassoon and Rosenberg, encapsulates the best qualities of the Guards, the exemplary standards for which they have been known throughout their long history and to this day.
The story begins in the spring of 1914, when the final pre-war edition of The Household Brigade Magazine was published. As the Guards looked forward to another busy summer season of state occasions and ceremonial duties, there were no forebodings of war, and not even a mention in the pages of the magazine. No one could have predicted the catastrophe that was to overcome Europe a few months later, and when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were assassinated in June 1914, there was an air of confidence that war would be averted. But it was not to be.
The next magazine to appear was the 1920 ‘Victory Number’, in which the Editor reminded readers that during the war ‘over 76,000 of the Household Troops have crossed the seas to speak fearlessly and effectively with a bitter and brutal enemy - and no less than 15,300, with two Field Marshals at their head, rank among those who have stood forward to overcome even the sharpness of death’. The first article to appear, by General Lord Rawlinson, entitled The Soul of the Guards, describes some of the special qualities that made the Guards so successful in The Great War, the extent to which other Divisions adopted ‘the methods which have always prevailed in the Brigade of Guards’. ‘Our system’ as he calls it, passed down through the generations, had enabled the Guards to prevail in some of the most difficult battles of the war.
In the many editions of the magazine that followed there are well over 300 articles, photographs and assorted features relating to the Guards in The Great War. There is hardly an edition when there was not something written about the war which affected so many lives and was to cast its long shadow over the following century. There are articles by Guardsmen about their personal experiences, and stories abound about the heroic exploits of individuals and, in particular, the many members of the Guards who were awarded the Victoria Cross during the war. These will all be covered in the book.
1st Battalion Irish Guards preparing to leave Wellington Barracks for France in August 1914 |
There are articles about Americans who served with the Foot Guards, along with some delightfully lighthearted pieces about life on the front line. One article describes the impact of Winston Churchill on Grenadier officers in November 1915, when he spent time in the trenches; hostility soon turned to admiration. The article was written by ‘Bulgy’ Thorne who had escorted Churchill through the lines and was later military attaché in Berlin, where he met Hitler and discussed their shared experiences around Gheluvelt in October 1914. When the Führer bunker was cleared in 1945, a translated copy of Bulgy’s article about the fighting at Gheluvelt was found among the rubble. Bulgy’s son, Peter, tells the full story in a piece that appeared in the magazine in 1987. The thought that Hitler might have been re-reading that same article during the last desperate days of the Second World War is indeed an intriguing one. And even during that second war, the magazine continued to be published four times a year, providing regular updates on the course of the war, together with occasional articles about the previous war. For example, in 1942 a story appeared about the Christmas truce of 1914 by ‘one who was there’.
Over the last forty years or so, more stories have been published, often written by the sons or grandsons of those who served with the Guards during The Great War. The variety and scope of subjects is wide and broad. Long lost gems such as the ‘The Tale of Bella and Bertha’, two Scots Guards’ cows that provided fresh milk to the Guardsmen in the front line. Several articles about the 6th or Machine Gun Regiment of Foot Guards, formed in early 1918 but disbanded in 1920. And, of course, as Guardsmen who fought in the war began to die of old age, tributes and obituaries appeared in the magazine - Harold Macmillan and Sergeant John Moyney VC, to name just two.
The Guards Came Through concludes with the immediate aftermath of the war, the creation of the new rank of ‘Guardsman’ (the King’s gift), the Victory March, the return to peacetime soldiering, and the discussions and decisions regarding the many memorials that were to be constructed. For example, the Guards’ Memorial that now overlooks Horse Guards Parade, was designed in the 1920s, following a well-publicized competition. Through the pages of the magazine we even have the names and photographs of the Guardsmen from each of the five Foot Guard regiments upon whom the individual statues that form the memorial were based.
The Guards Came Through will be a compact, easily readable and beautifully illustrated account of The Guards in The Great War. This poignant tale stands out from the wider narrative of the war. It is the story of Great Britain’s finest regiments, the Sovereign’s own Household Troops, never far from the King or Queen during both peace and war, and always the first to engage an enemy in times of conflict.
The Guards Came Through: The History of the Guards in the Great War is due to be published by Third Millennium Publishing on 9th June 2016 at an RRP of £30.00 (plus p&p). To pre-order at the special pre-publication price of £24.99 (plus p&p) please visit www.tmiltd.com/guards or telephone the publisher on +44 (0)20 7336 0144 (9:30 am - 5:00 pm). Third Millennium is an imprint of Profile Books Ltd. www.profilebooks.com
The Guards Memorial, overlooking Horse Guards, with the five statues modelled
on Guardsmen from the Grenadier, Scots, Welsh, Irish, and Coldstream Guards
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