Craster - Fifteen Rounds a Minute: The Grenadiers at War, August to December 1914, Edited from Diaries and Letters of Major Ma Jeffreys and Others

This book would not have been possible without the enormous amount of help and kindness that has been forthcoming from all directions during its preparation. In particular I would like to thank Mr Patrick Forbes for his part in the genesis of the idea, and Mr Alistair Horne for his encouragement, his advice and my publisher.

I am most grateful to the present Lord Jeffreys for permission to use his grandfathers diary as the framework on which the rest of the story could be built and for providing many of the illustrations from his family albums, and my thanks are also due to the following: The Regimental Lieutenant-Colonel (Colonel N. Hales Pakenham Mahon) and the successive Regimental Adjutants of the Grenadier Guards who allowed me to research in and retain parts of the Regimental archives; Mr Ralph Abel Smith for permission to quote from the letters and diaries of his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Wilfrid R. A. Smith; Lady Gweneth Cavendish for permission to quote from the papers of her husband Colonel R. H. V. Cavendish; The Dowager Lady Hardinge of Penshurst, for permission to quote the letter from Lady Edward Cecil (later Viscountess Milner); Lord Killanin, for permission to include the account written by his uncle, then Lord Killanin, of the search for the graves of those killed at Villers-Cotterets; Lieutenant-General Sir George Gordon-Lennox, for permission to use the diary of his father, Major Lord Bernard Gordon-Lennox; Lord Ridley, for permission to quote from the diary of his cousin, Colonel E. D. Ridley; Sir Oliver Welby, for permission to quote from the diary of his brother, Lieutenant Richard Welby; The Marchioness of Zetland, for permission to use the letters of her father Colonel E. J. L. Pike.

Mr Harold Macmillan, Major-General Sir Allan Adair and Colonel R. S. Lambert were all good enough to set aside some time to give me their personal recollections of the personalities involved.

Mr Antony Brett-James and Mr John Keegan of the Department of War Studies at R.M.A. Sandhurst were both kind enough to read the manuscript either in whole or in part, and to offer advice and guidance where needed. To Mr Ken White of the Staff College Library and his assistants I am indebted for their patience and help during the period of production.

Finally, I would like to thank Miss Caroline Hobhouse of Macmillan for the patience and good humour with which she has guided yet another complete novice through the complicated process of literary gestation; Mr Keith Simpson of the Department of War Studies at Sandhurst for undertaking the monumental task of compiling the biographical index; and Mrs Vanessa Leicester Thackeray for the production of an excellent, workable typescript from a chaotic manuscript.

J. M. Craster

Addendum

On the reissue of this book being first proposed I was delighted when, in reply to my plea, Richard Holmes responded with typical insouciance Grim Reaper permitting, I would be happy to do a foreword for the admirable 15 rpm. Alas that permission was not granted, and the loss of course was felt far wider than this modest sphere. But without Richards quiet and continuing support this would not be happening. My thanks to Michael Orr, who picked up the ball and ran it over the line, and to Jamie Glover Wilson who has coaxed yet another idle author to the point of publication

I am supremely grateful to Major-General Sir Evelyn Webb-Carter KCVO, OBE, DL for his Foreword, and to the descendants of those who gave permission for the extracts from their forebears letters and diaries to be used. Every effort has been made to contact them, but if this volume comes as a surprise to some I can only apologise!

Michael Craster

February 2012