Description
Born in September 1891, Arthur Graeme West was a quiet and self-effacing youth with a passion for literature, who went on to become a keen Oxford scholar. When war broke out in 1914, for some time it left him untouched. However, in January 1915, in a rush of enthusiasm, he enlisted as a private in the Public Schools Battalion. From that time, until his death in April 1917, his life was a succession of training in England and fighting in France, with short intervals of leave.West joined due to a feeling of duty and patriotism, but the war was to have a profound effect on him. He developed an intense abhorrence of army life and began to question the very core of his beliefs in religion, patriotism and the reason for war. This growing disillusionment found expression in two particularly powerful war poems, _God! How I Hate You, You Young Cheerful Men_ and _Night Patrol_, which stand deservedly alongside those of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen.In August 1916, he became a second lieute
