Guest speaker, the military historian and author Christopher Jary joins Lydiard Friends’ Chair, Sarah Finch-Crisp to reveal Vernon’s wartime story; fighting with the 6th Dorsets at Passchendaele through the grim autumn of 1917, then facing the German spring offensive on the Somme in 1918.
Christopher Jary, military historian and author, The Keep Museum, Dorset, 2023
One moment the young Lord Bolingbroke was celebrating his coming of age at Lydiard Park, the next he was set on a path for the battlefields of France. Vernon’s health paid a price for enduring a year of some of the fiercest battles and harshest conditions ever faced by British infantry. Evacuated from the battlefield, he was discharged from the Army on 6th November 1918 on the grounds of shell shock.
Drawing on Christopher Jary’s expertise alongside photographs and documents in The Lydiard Archives, ‘The Viscount who fought as a Tommy’ will be of particular interest to anyone interested in World War I and social history of the time.
Ticket prices include a complimentary glass of wine or a soft drink if preferred. The hotel bar will also be open.
There will be an opportunity to purchase signed copies of Christopher Jary’s ‘The Keep in 60 People’ which features The Viscount who fought as a Tommy.
Parking: There is a Pay and Display carpark near St. Mary’s Church Lydiard Tregoze and the entrance to the Hotel & Conference Centre. Drive entrance on Tregoze Way.