Books by Richard A. Sparling

Raised on the suggestion of the politician and economic historian H.A.L. Fisher, then Liberal Education Minister, after the idea was mooted by two of his students at Sheffield University, this Service Battalion, after initial training in and around Sheffield saw its first overseas service in Egypt, the Battalion was well and truly ''blooded'' along with so many others, on July 1st 1916 at Serre on the Somme. After service at Vimy Ridge, it returned to the Somme and more hard fighting at Hebuterne. The Battalion helped to defend Arras during the Ludendorff offensives in 1918. Accompanied by photographs, maps and a Roll of Honour, this is a very vivid and evocative history.