War Diary of the Master of Belhaven 1914-1918

An extraordinarily painstaking and accurate picture of war with not the tiniest detail unrecorded. Captain Cyril Falls MC Ralph Hamilton fought almost continuously throughout the war including action in the battles at Loos Ypres and the Somme. First published in 1924 this diary provides a remarkable account of an artillery officers experience during the Great War. From the cold and the mud to the constant shelling he paints a picture of grim authenticity. At the Battle of Loos his battery scrambled in the sticky clay. At the battle of the Somme Hamilton fought bitterly at the infamous Delville Wood. He endured bombardments from all types of guns but nothing was more feared than the silent landing of the gas shells. When not on the front lines there was little to do but wait to be called to engage. Yet even there trips to divisional headquarters might see an errant shell or stray snipers bullet. Yet the Master of Belhaven was not completely cowed. For Hamilton as long as he could listen to his gramophone and his Wagner records the war was bearable. Ralph Hamilton (1883-1918) the Master of Belhaven attended Eton and Sandhurst before serving as an officer in the British Army. In 1901 he joined Grenadiers and later the Kings Own Hussars in India. In 1908 he joined a battery of the Royal Horse Artillery of the newly formed Territorial Force. He had attained the rank of major by the outbreak of the First World War and entered the Western Front in August 1914.