WAR POETS Several army camps were established in the Sefton area at the beginning of World War One. Two of the world famous war poets were trained at the Army Camp in Litherland, which was located in the Moss Lane and Church Road area. The camp was the primary base (headquarters) for the Royal Welch Fusiliers who were stationed there until embarking for Ireland in 1917. In practice, most of the men were sent to France immediately after they completed basic training.
Siegfried Sassoon (1915) Motivated by patriotism, Sassoon joined the British Army. He was commissioned into 3rd Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a Second Lieutenant on 29th May 1915, and was trained at Litherland Camp. Sassoon served with incredible courage on the Western Front, receiving the Military Cross for Bravery on 27 July 1916.
It was used to train new volunteers in preparation for them leaving for frontline action, and it also acted as a retraining centre for soldiers returning to war after recovering from injury and sick leave. Soldiers at the Litherland Camp trained in the shadow of the Brotherton’s Munitions factory on Hawthorne Road and lived with the constant fear that one spark could set off a huge explosion. The Litherland camp was built in 1914 and was demolished in 1920. The two war poets who trained at Litherland Camp were: Lt. Siegfried Sassoon
The citation read: 2nd Lt. Siegfried Lorraine Sassoon, 3rd (attd. 1st) Bn., R. W. Fus. For conspicuous gallantry during a raid on the enemy's trenches. He remained for 1½ hours under rifle and bomb fire collecting and bringing in the wounded. Owing to his courage and determination all the casualties were brought in. Sassoon began to see the futility of the war. Local legend has it that during a spell at Litherland Camp, on a visit to Formby Golf Club (where officers were honorary members), Sassoon threw the ribbon from his Military Cross into the Mersey, in protest at the brutality of the war. After being injured, Sassoon refused to return to duty. Rather than court martial him, the war office decided that he was unfit for service and had him sent to Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh, where he was officially treated for ‘Shell Shock’. During his stay in hospital Sassoon met and befriended another poet, Wilfred Owen. Eventually he did return to the front, only to be shot by ‘friendly fire’. He relinquished his commission on health grounds on 12 March 1919, but was allowed to retain the rank of Captain. After the war, Sassoon was instrumental in bringing Owen's work to the attention of a wider audience. Their friendship is the subject of the play ‘Not About Heroes’ by Stephen MacDonald.
“After being injured, Sassoon refused to return to duty“.
“Somehow I must live by writing“.
Robert Graves (1917) At the outbreak of World War One in August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He trained at Litherland and later met Siegfried Sassoon, who became a close friend, in France. He published his first volume of poems, ‘Over the Brazier’, in 1916. Graves developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about the experience of frontline conflict. At the Battle of the Somme, he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die and was officially reported as having died of wounds. However, Graves survived and gradually recovered, and apart from a brief spell back in France, spent the remainder of the war in England.
Following the war, Graves struggled physically and mentally, he had a wife and growing family, but was financially insecure. In his debilitated state he felt unable to face the world. He described himself as; ‘Very thin, very nervous, and with about four years' loss of sleep to make up, I was waiting until I got well enough to go to Oxford on the Government educational grant. I knew that it would be years before I could face anything but a quiet country life. My disabilities were many: I could not use a telephone, I felt sick every time I travelled by train, and to see more than two new people in a single day prevented me from sleeping. I felt ashamed of myself as a drag on Nancy, but had sworn on the very day of my demobilisation never to be under anyone's orders for the rest of my life. Somehow I must live by writing’.
“At the Battle of the Somme, he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die“.
Robert Graves