Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon

Sassoon photographed in 1915 by George Charles Beresford
Sassoon photographed in 1915 by George Charles Beresford
BornSiegfried Loraine Sassoon
(1886-09-08)8 September 1886
Matfield, Kent, England
Died1 September 1967(1967-09-01) (aged 80)
Heytesbury, Wiltshire, England
Pen name
  • Saul Kain
  • Pinchbeck Lyre
Occupation
Education
Genre
  • Poetry
  • fiction
  • biography
Notable worksThe Complete Memoirs of George Sherston
Spouse
Hester Gatty
(m. 1933; sep. 1945)
ChildrenGeorge
RelativesSassoon family
Military career
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service / branchBritish Army
Years of service1914–1919
RankCaptain
Unit
Battles / warsFirst World War
AwardsMilitary Cross

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front,[1] he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirized the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war.[2] Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war with his "Soldier's Declaration" of July 1917, which resulted in his being sent to the Craiglockhart War Hospital. During this period, Sassoon met and formed a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume, fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the Sherston trilogy.

  1. ^ Sassoon, Siegfried. "Journal, 26 June 1916 – 12 August 1916". Cambridge Digital Library. Archived from the original on 6 August 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  2. ^ Moorcroft Wilson 1998.