Grayson - At War with the 16th Irish Division 1914-1918 : the Letters of J H M Staniforth

I would like to thank Mrs Rosamund Du Cane, Max Staniforths daughter, for allowing me to edit her fathers letters, and for making me so welcome at her home. Her enthusiastic collaboration with the project from first to last has been invaluable and it has been a pleasure both meeting her and working with her.

I am very grateful to Terry Denman for his advice on a number of points regarding this project. All writers on the 16th (Irish) Division owe him a debt of gratitude for opening up the field with his work. His article on Staniforth was a valuable alert to the existence of letters which were not in Staniforths typescript.

Thanks are due to Judith Curthoys, the Archivist at Christ Church, for providing information on Staniforths degree, and to Jeremy Hargreaves, who kindly explained some Christ Church terminology.

At the Imperial War Museum, Elizabeth Bowers, Madeleine James and Anthony Richards have been very helpful throughout. I am especially grateful to Madeleine for arranging for photographs to be taken of various items held in the IWMs collection. I would particularly like to thank Amanda Mason for her helpful comments on a draft of this volume. Rod Suddaby provided useful information at a seminar on Staniforth held at the IWM in November 2011. Thanks are also due to Emily Fuggle for organising that seminar. The Reverend Clive Hughes, formerly of the IWM, collected the letters from Max Staniforth in 1981 and I am grateful to him for the time he took to discuss his recollections with me over the phone. I am also grateful to Barbara Levy, the IWMs literary agent, for arranging the contract with Pen & Sword, where thanks are also due to Rupert Harding for his guidance.

I continue to be grateful to Sen OHare, Harry Donaghy and all others involved in the 6th Connaught Rangers Research Project, for their inspirational enthusiasm for the memory of the 16th (Irish) Division. Thanks are due to Julian Putkowski for sharing with me his 2005 paper which, in the context of a wider discussion of the Second Battle of Ypres, addressed the phenomenon of Germans allegedly being found wearing British uniforms.

Permission to quote from the Staniforth letters and to reproduce images of them is provided by Mrs Rosamund Du Cane. The Imperial War Museum has provided permission to reproduce photographs from its collections. The 1982-3 pictures of Staniforth in his study are from Hampshire, The County Magazine and are reproduced by kind permission of Jon Benson of the Mark Allen Group.

Finally, I would like to thank my wife and son, Lucy and Edward, for tolerating the mental absences which such a project involves, and my Mum, Jannat, for supporting us all.