Stephen Cooper (2)

This is an interesting way of looking at the Great war. The rugby club, Rosslyn park, was founded in the 1880s. At the end of the first war, there was a note in the minutes of how many club members who had served and been lost. No list of names, no memorial. This book aims to put names to those who didn't return. It takes 15 of them, and tells their stories. They all played for the club (as well as representing numerous national teams at the same time) yet none of those in this book returned. There are deaths in all the major theatres of the war, including on the home front. It doesn't shy away from the death by his own hand due to shell shock, which is often overlooked in the war - the mental impact of it. In that sense it is a more rounded presentation of the war than others, it doesn't concentrate on the western front, they're not all decorated. It's interesting, but I think there's a different point of view that I find uncomfortable with. Yes, there were a number of men who never came back, but there were a large number who did. They suffered and often continued to suffer to their deaths, in some cases many decades later. What makes the death of one man more worthy than the survival of others?… (more)