author
Valentine Erskine Inglefield
1886–1947
A British Army officer turned firsthand chronicler of the First World War, he is best remembered for a detailed history of the 20th (Light) Division. His writing brings military record and lived experience together in a way that still feels immediate.
1 Audiobook
The history of the Twentieth (Light) Division
by Valentine Erskine Inglefield
About the author
Born in 1886 and dying in 1947, Valentine Erskine Inglefield is chiefly known today for The History of the Twentieth (Light) Division, first published in 1921. The book was written under the name Captain V. E. Inglefield and has remained the work most closely associated with him.
That history was compiled from official records and the recollections of people who took part in the fighting, giving it the feel of a careful, inside account rather than a distant summary. Modern editions and catalog records continue to present it as an important regimental and divisional history of the First World War.
Some later descriptions identify him as a medical officer, but where details were not consistently confirmed, it is safest to say that he wrote with close knowledge of the division he described. For listeners interested in wartime memoir, military history, and the human side of the Western Front, his work offers a vivid window into one of Britain's wartime formations.