Other ranks - William Vincent Tilsley

Other Ranks is a First World War classic, first published in 1931 but quickly lost in the wave of war memoirs and novels. It is the fictionalised account of William Tilsley's war experiences through the eyes of ordinary soldier Dick Bradshaw in the 55th West Lancashire Division. This authentic memoir of life and death on the front line begins with Bradshaw's "C" Company leaving the depot at Etaples and heading for their first engagement at the front on the Somme in the Autumn of 1916. Over the next fourteen months it follows the chores behind the line and unwelcome stints on the front line through to his wounding during the Third battle of Ypres in 1917 and subsequent return to Blighty. As well as criticism of the conduct of the war, there is description of the desolation of the landscape and continual conditions of the trenches as experienced by the Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI); wet, cold, frost bite, trench foot, shelling and general life in trenches with continual risk of collapse. War is not a chivalrous experience and his narrative does not hold back in his thoughts and feelings concerning soldiers behind the lines out of the reach of the guns and those at the top. This new edition follows research by Gaye Magnall and is accompanied by introductions from relatives of the three main characters, O'Neill, Magnall and WVT's great nephew, David Tilsley.