Siegfried Sassoon

Born in 1886, Siegfried Sassoon became one of the most important British poets of the First World War. He served on the Western Front, was decorated for bravery, and later became famous for poems that exposed the cruelty and absurdity of war rather than celebrating it.

Alongside his poetry, he wrote memoirs and fiction, including the well-known semi-autobiographical Sherston books. His writing is remembered for its clarity, emotional force, and bitter wit, and it helped shape how later generations understood the experience of the war.

After the war, he continued to write for decades and remained a major literary figure until his death in 1967. Today he is read both as a war poet and as a writer who turned personal experience into lasting literature.