Leslie Vickers

Leslie Vickers is known for Training for the Trenches, a World War I handbook first published in 1917. In the book’s original front matter, he is identified as Captain Leslie Vickers, a late lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders and a lecturer in trench warfare in the Department of Military Service at Columbia University.

His writing is shaped by lived military experience. The book says it was based on his personal experience during the first two years of the war in France, and its introduction explains that he hoped his training in England and time in the trenches on the Western Front would help new soldiers become more effective and better prepared.

Very little reliable biographical information about Vickers seems easy to confirm beyond his military background and this book. What stands out most is the voice of someone writing for usefulness rather than fame: plainspoken, practical, and focused on helping readers understand the demands of modern war as he saw them.