Philip was born Philip Henry G. Gosse in Kensington
in 1879. His grandfather was the
naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, FRS
He was educated Haileybury then sent to farming
school. He went on the FitzGerald
Expedition to the Andes to collect animals.
Philip studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital
in London then became a GP in Beaulieu in the New Forest. He joined the Royal Army Medical
Corps in 1914 and served in WW1. He was the British Army’s Official Rat Catcher
Officer.
After the War, Philip married Irene Marden in 1930
and moved to Sussex, where he wrote books and dug ponds.
In 1941, he matriculated from Cambridge University
and went on to work as a research student at Trinity College. He died in 1959.
As part of my research into Fascinating Facts of the
Great War for my commemorative exhibitions in memory of my Old Contemptible
Grandfather, I have been reading Philip Gosse’s book “A Naturalist goes to
War”.
I found this extract from Philip’s book particularly fascinating
and decided to share it with you, under the heading “Fascinating Facts of the
Great War”.
On pages 63 and 64, Gosse describes the amazing work
of the Postal Section of the Royal Engineers, which dealt with all the post of
the various British Expeditionary Forces in the theatres of WW1.
He finishes by printing a letter sent to his mother
by Siegfried Sassoon from whom he obtained permission to reproduce the
letter. In the letter,
written by Sassoon on 6th January 1916 from the 1st
Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers on the Somme near Airaines, among other
things mention is made of
“.. a young poet in this Battn., 19 years old and a
temporary Captain – Robert Graves, son of Alfred Perceval. … R.G. writes
moderately well and is a great admirer of Samuel Butler…”
From “A Naturalist goes to War” by Philip Gosse,
first published by Penguin
Books, Harmondsworth, Middlesex in 1934; my copy published in 1944.
