Publications
Undertones of War, by Edward Blunden, published 1929 (339 pp., New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co.) View Online
Undertones of War, by Edward Blunden, published 1937 (280 pp., Harmondsworth: Penguin) accessible at: East Sussex Libraries
Undertones of War, by Edward Blunden, published 1965 (reprint of the original publication in 1929, 255 pp., London: Collins, ISBN-10: 0002118491 & ISBN-13: 9780002118491) accessible at: British Library & West Sussex Libraries
Abstract:In what is one of the finest autobiographies to come out of the First World War, the distinguished poet Edmund Blunden records his experiences as an infantry subaltern in France and Flanders. Blunden took part in the disastrous battles of the Somme, Ypres and Passchendaele, describing the latter as 'murder, not only to the troops, but to their singing faiths and hopes'. In his compassionate yet unsentimental prose, he tells of the heroism and despair found among the officers. Blunden's poems show how he found hope in the natural landscape; the only thing that survives the terrible betrayal enacted in the Flanders fields.
Great-uncles in the Great War, by Sue Martin, published December 2008 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 18 no. 4, article, pp.196-200) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508971] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:War 4 August 1914! The following day great-uncle Robert HILL reported for duty at the barracks of the Royal Sussex Regiment in Chichester. The Chichester Observer (12 August 1914) described: "It was nearly 10pm when at last they left the barracks but large crowds awaited them in North and South Streets and all the way down they were greeted with cheers. This batch numbered just 400. Another left on Thursday". Robert was a reservist so he had been mobilised immediately. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion.
William the stumbling block, by Sue Martin, published June 2010 in Sussex Family Historian (vol. 19 no. 2, article, pp.55-59) accessible at: W.S.R.O. [Lib 15860] & The Keep [LIB/508843] & CD SFH40 from S.F.H.G.
Preview:Reading 'William the Invisible' by Michael Ewens in the December 2009 Sussex Family Historian brought to mind the problem I have with an ancestor of mine also called William.
Being Sussex born and bred I am fortunate in being able to trace most of the family to the 18th and in some cases the 17th and even 16th centuries. How frustrating then to find that the biggest 'stumbling block' I've come across is as recent as a great-grandfather. Not so surprising perhaps as my grandmother Nellie HILL (née BLUNDEN) always hinted that there was a mystery around the birth of her father William BLUNDEN, possibly a birth on the 'wrong side of the blanket' which seemed to be associated with his mother working in a 'big house'. She also said he was ill-treated as a child by his father because his father had been made to marry his mother.
William BLUNDEN was certainly illegitimate.
Being Sussex born and bred I am fortunate in being able to trace most of the family to the 18th and in some cases the 17th and even 16th centuries. How frustrating then to find that the biggest 'stumbling block' I've come across is as recent as a great-grandfather. Not so surprising perhaps as my grandmother Nellie HILL (née BLUNDEN) always hinted that there was a mystery around the birth of her father William BLUNDEN, possibly a birth on the 'wrong side of the blanket' which seemed to be associated with his mother working in a 'big house'. She also said he was ill-treated as a child by his father because his father had been made to marry his mother.
William BLUNDEN was certainly illegitimate.