author

Lieutenant J. R. Ferris

Best known for a compact World War I training manual, this Canadian officer wrote with the brisk, practical tone of someone focused on getting soldiers ready for trench combat. Very little personal information appears to survive, which gives the work an unusually direct, field-made feel.

1 Audiobook

Bombers' Training, and Application of Same in Trench Warfare

Bombers' Training, and Application of Same in Trench Warfare

by Lieutenant J. R. Ferris

About the author

Lieutenant J. R. Ferris is credited as the author of Bombers' Training, and Application of Same in Trench Warfare, a Canadian military manual first published in Toronto in 1916. The title page identifies him as Lieut. J. R. Ferris, 63rd O. Bn., C.E.F., linking him to the Canadian Expeditionary Force during the First World War.

The book was written as a practical guide for officers and non-commissioned officers training bombers, the soldiers responsible for grenade work in trench fighting. Its concise lessons, lectures, and sample six-day syllabus suggest an author concerned less with theory than with clear instruction, safety, and battlefield usefulness.

Beyond that publication and military identification, reliable biographical details about Ferris are hard to confirm from readily available sources. No clearly verified portrait was found during this search, so it is safest to let the surviving work speak for him.