The Kensington Battalion: 'never Lost a Yard of Trench'

By G.I.S. Inglis

Raised by the Mayor of Kensington, the 22nd Royal Fusiliers (the Kensington Battalion) were a strange mixture of social classes (bankers and stevedores, writers and laborers) with a strong sprinkling of irreverent colonials thrown in. Such a disparate group needed a strong leader and, luckily, in Randle Barratt Barker, they found one, first as their trainer and then as the Commanding Officer.

As this superb book reveals The Kensington Battalion had a unique spirit and given their ordeals they needed this. They suffered severely in the battles of 1917 and, starved of reinforcements, were disbanded in 1918. Yet thanks to a strong Old Comrades Association, a special magazine Mufti, welfare work and reunions the Battalion's close spirit lived on.

The author has successfully drawn on a wealth of first hand material (diaries, letters and official documents) as well as interviews from the 1980s to produce a fitting and atmospheric record of service and sacrifice.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1848842473
• ISBN13: 9781848842472
• Release Date: February 2011
• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.