Roberts Steve - The platoon an infantryman on the Western Front 1916-1918

The editors of The Platoon would like to express their thanks to all those without whom the book would not have been possible. The first is, of course, the author Joseph Johns Steward, a man whom we never met but now know so much about. We can only speculate as to the circumstances in which he wrote this book, but his personal account of warfare on the Western Front is war from the point of view of the PBI, the Poor Bleeding Infantryman. It is a frank, factual and moving account that on his death was nearly thrown away as rubbish. The fact that it was not lost was due to the intervention of Joan Gray, who rescued the folder from the house in Croydon and passed it on to her daughter-in-law Jean Gray. Jean brought the typescript to the attention of Julian Waltho from Kent College, who suggested that Andy Robertshaw might like to look at it.

The rest, as they say, is history, but the publication would not have been possible without the support of our long-time publisher at Pen & Sword, Rupert Harding. He saw the potential of The Platoon and freely admits that his attitude to the value of the book improved with every version we sent him. This process of editing would have been rather delayed had it not been for the skills of Lesley Wood, who retyped the entire book. (The editors would still be typing now, had it been left to them.)

Thanks must also go to Colin Lattimore, Chairman of the Book Plate Society, for his assistance in dating the original book plate and subsequently enabling the editors to establish an approximate time frame for the writing of the manuscript, and to Bruce Harling, who, despite residing in Nice, illustrated the ease with which information from the United Kingdom census records could be accessed.

We are also grateful to Major Chris Carling, whose friendship, companionship, opinions and map reading expertise were much appreciated while we were attempting to follow the movements of The Platoon around northern France.

We would also like to thank the staff at the Imperial War Museum and the National Archives for all their assistance in tracing various individual and unit records and images. We must also thank Barbara Levy for allowing us to reproduce Twelve Months After by Siegfried Sassoon.

Finally we want to thank Joanna and Russell Gray, Jeans son and daughter, for allowing us to publish the book, and Jeans relative Laurence Hawkins for providing vital family history and some of the photographs we have used. Without the assistance of Jeans extended family, we would have no photographs of the author at all.

Andy Robertshaw and Steve Roberts
March 2011