Buckie councillor Neil McLennan compiles book on War Poets
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A Buckie councillor has compiled a book on two famous poets from the First World War in time for Remembrance Sunday this weekend.
Neil McLennan has been fascinated for years by the lives of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.
By chance both men ended up being treated for ‘shell shock’ in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh after their traumatic experiences on the Western Front.
Owen had been sent there after being caught in the blast of a mortar shell.
After returning to the trenches he would die in a 'friendly fire' incident at the age of 25 on November 4, 1918 – just a week before the war's end.
Sassoon was decorated for several acts of bravery early in the conflict. However, after he later publicly spoke out against the merits of the war he was sent to the hospital for psychiatric treatment in order to shut him up.
Neil, who represents the town on Moray Council as an Independent, said: "I was interested in two things. Firstly that two of the most known and read poets were in Scotland during the war, but few people had written very much about this fact.
"Secondly I was interested in how people respond to traumatic experiences in their life, and how education – or re-education as the doctors then called it – could help people recover.
"There is much research to show that post traumatic stress can lead some people on to great achievements.
"Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon used their horrific war experiences to weave some of the most powerful words in literary history."
Neil's interest in the subject was first kindled on learning that his great-grandfather had been a Seaforth Highlander and was next to another war poet, Scotland's Ewart Alan Mackinstosh, when he was killed at the Battle of Cambrai.
This interest grew further while working as head of history at Tynecastle High School in Edinburgh, the same establishment where Owen was sent to teach as part of his convalescence.
Neil said: "I wanted to learn more about Owen’s time in Edinburgh and this sparked decades of detective work to piece together his life in Scotland and the people he met, like his fellow officer patient Siegfried Sassoon.
"This book is the first time their work, written in Scotland during the war, has been published together side by side."
The book is dedicated to three charities: Poppy Scotland, Royal British Legion Scotland and Forces Children Scotland, which was formerly known as the Royal Caledonian Education Trust.
Neil said: "These three charities have been supporting Armed Forces communities for over a century.
"I hope everyone who reads the book can make a donation to them. The times may be difficult for us at present, but we owe much to those who served and sacrificed in wartime."
'Owen and Sassoon – The Edinburgh Poems' is available at Yeadon's and Waterstones as well as online from Amazon.
