General Haig accused the Yorkshire Territorials of being ?too sleep" to fight well on the Somme, but the 1/5th Battalion proved him wrong. Mainly drawn from Harrogate, York, Ripon and the surrounding area, more than 700 lost their lives as they went on to fight successfully at Passchendaele and other key battles of the Great War. John Sheehan recounts individual stories of tragedy and heroism, as these part-time ?Saturday night soldiers" forged themselves into an effective fighting unit. Using original personal and military diaries, with hundreds of carefully selected newspaper extracts, letters and photographs, this book traces individual stories of tradesmen, apprentices, lawyers, musicians, sportsmen, brothers, husbands and fathers from Harrogate and the West Riding. As such, it characterises the experience of the British Infantryman in the Great War. AUTHOR: John Sheehan studied military history at Kings College London, and has written numerous articles on the First World War for the Harrogate Advertiser and other papers. He plays village cricket for Burnt Yates CC, and enjoys the magnificent view of Nidderdale from square leg. John is married with a son.
