Sassoon's Letter to The Times

Siegfried Sassoon was born into wealth and had led a privileged life before the war, with much hunting and cricketeering and some literary dabbling to pass the time. War brought something else out in him, though, and he fought with distinction with the 38th Welsh Division at the Somme. He earned the nickname "Mad Jack." In 1917 while on convalescent leave in England, advised by Bertrand Russell, he turned defiantly against the war. He tore the Military Cross ribbon from his uniform, tossed it in the River Mersey and sent this letter to The Times, where it was published:

Lt. Siegfried Sassoon.

3rd Batt: Royal Welsh Fusiliers.

July, 1917.

I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that the war upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them and that had this been done the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.

I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops and I can no longer be a party to prolonging these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. 

On behalf of those who are suffering now, I make this protest against the deception which is being practised upon them; also I believe it may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share and which they have not enough imagination to realise

Sassoon was saved from a court martial for insubordination by the intercession of fellow Royal Welch Fusilier Robert Graves and was sent to Craiglockhart military hospital in Edinburgh to be treated for shell shock. There he met and encouraged fellow poet Wilfred Owen, who will be featured later in this issue. Both Owen and Sassoon would return to the field, but their subsequent writings would emphasize the sufferings and sense of betrayal felt by the common soldiers of the war. 

Editor's Note:  We have published over a dozen articles over the years on Sassoon and his writings. [He's just a fascinating subject, who produced a lot of material about the war.] If you are interested you can find them HERE.