Famous Dugout: A Machine Gun Officer's Record Of His War

This is Dick Walker’s account of his 1914-9 war service, first in the Liverpool Pals and then as a machine gun officer attached to the 36th (Ulster) Division. It was written in 1920-1 and is edited by his great-niece, Sarah Leigh.

He arrived on the Somme just after 1 July 1916 to find that 8 out of the 11 officers in his Company had been killed or wounded on that day.

This is a frank and vivid record of what he remembered of the War when it was fresh in his mind, written to preserve his own memories. None of it has been published, apart from a few extracts Cyril Falls quoted in his 1922 history of the Division. About one episode in March 1918 Falls wrote: ‘The counter-attack which followed may be described in Captain Walker’s own words, because it succeeds, as no official accounts ever can, in picturing the exact details for the mind’s eye.