A Minstrel in France

People wrote to me men and women who like me had lost their sons. Their letters brought the tears to my eyes anew. They were tender letters and beautiful letters most of them and letters to make proud and glad as well as sad the heart of the man to whom they were written.... Dont desert us now Harry! It was so that they put it one after another in those letters. Ah Harry-there is so much woe and grief and pain in the world that you who can must do all that is in your power to make them easier to bear!... Come back to us Harry-make us laugh again! -from Chapter IX Scottish vaudevillian SIR HARRY LAUDER was one of the most popular entertainers in the world before World War I touring the globe numerous times to great acclaim. But he almost left the stage for good after his only child Captain John Lauder was killed in action in France just after Christmas 1916... until his wife Nance and his fans reminded him that his power to bring joy and laughter to the world was too important to be abandoned. Here in this stirring 1918 book Lauder (1870-1950) relates how he transformed sorrow to action honoring his sons last words -Carry on!- by becoming the first performer to entertain troops in the battlefields a dangerous mission (he regularly came under fire) he carried out in both world wars. Knighted in 1919 for his service to the British Empire Lauder is an inspiration to this day and this is a remarkable tale of a fathers grief and a legacy that continues to affect soldiers and their families today.