author
G. B. (George Brenton) Laurie
1867–1915
A Canadian-born British army officer, he left behind vivid wartime letters that bring the early months of the First World War close and personal. His writing mixes a soldier’s clear eye with the warmth and steadiness of someone writing home.
1 Audiobook
Letters of Lt.-Col. George Brenton Laurie (commanding 1st Battn. Royal Irish Rifles) Dated November 4th, 1914-March 11th, 1915
by G. B. (George Brenton) Laurie
About the author
Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1867, George Brenton Laurie built a military career that included service in the Sudan, the Boer War, and the First World War. He is best remembered as the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, and for the letters he wrote from the front.
Those letters were later published as Letters of Lt.-Col. George Brenton Laurie, giving readers a firsthand record of daily life, duty, and danger in the opening months of the war. The book stands out for its direct, unshowy style and for the human detail it preserves.
Laurie was killed in action in France in March 1915, during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Because of that, his surviving letters read not just as military history, but as the personal voice of a man writing in the middle of events he would not survive.