Soldiers: Fighting Men's Lives, 1901-2001 (review)

Every year, as part of the War Studies course I run at the University of Oxford Summer School, I take the students to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. They enjoy the gracious, spacious buildings by the Thames, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and the tale that King Charles II was persuaded to create this home for "Old soldiers, broken in the wars" in 1682 at the urgings of his beguiling mistress, Nell Gwynn. They enjoy the chance to explore a lesser-known fragment of British military history but what they enjoy most of all is meeting the red-coated In-Pensioners, all formerly twenty-two-year servicemen in the British Army, who have come here to live out the twilight of their lives in great comfort and to considerable acclaim.

Like my students, Philip Ziegler has concentrated on the In-Pensioners in this splendid book. Selecting just nine lives from the three hundred In-Pensioners available, Ziegler still manages to cover both World Wars and all the varied campaigns fought by the British Army in the last hundred years, while distilling all the characteristics—and characters—present among the In-Pensioners. These range from endearing old soldier to cantankerous old coot but every one has a tale to tell, drawn from long and bitter personal experience in the wars and in the sometimes-harsher times of peace.

Albert Alexandre joined up, aged fifteen, to serve in the First World War. He fought at Passchendaele in 1917 and right through the Second World War as well—when he came home in 1945, his daughter did not know him. When Thomas Parnell joined the Army in 1936, his regiment, the 16/5th Lancers, still had horses—but they were in tanks before Tom went into action at El Alamein in 1942. Douglas Wright was in the King's Company of the Grenadier Guards—and, being too handy with his fists, on defaulters parade quite often—before he found his niche in the SBS, serving with the fighting Dane, Anders Lassen VC, and raiding among the Greek islands.

Ziegler's book is full of stirring tales but the tragic side of service life is there as well; the poverty most of these old soldiers were born into, the difficulties they faced in finding work when their Regular service was over, the disruption to their families caused by service life. And yet, all that taken into account, what shines through each account is an abiding affection for the British Army and its regimental system. That Army, and their regiments, provided the basis of their lives and at the end the Army has taken them back into its care; God knows, they have earned it.

Well done, Philip Ziegler, for writing such a splendid tribute to the Royal Hospital and its even-more-splendid pensioners and so providing an insight into the lives of private soldiers, before, during and after their service. Every soldier should read this book—but any readers who happen to visit London this year can easily nip down to Chelsea and pay their respects in person. The In-Pensioners will make them very welcome.