I Shall Not Be Away Long

LT COL CHARLES BARTLETT (1878-1940) was a larger-than-life and slightly roguish infantry officer who served on the Western Front from August 1915 to March 1917. The seventh child of a Buckinghamshire banker, he was a regular army officer from 1900 to 1906, serving in Gibraltar, Woking, Dublin, Egypt and Khartoum, before becoming a private secretary in the Theatre and marrying a West End actress & singer with the stage name of Peggy Bethel. Involved in the raising of the 8th Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1914, he went on to lead them at the Battles of Loos and the Somme before ill-health led to a return to England and a desk job at the Ministry of National Service. After the war he became an organiser for the National Institution for the Blind. His 341 letters from the trenches were never intended for publication but were passed down through the generations of his family. ---- ANDREW TATHAM is an artist and historian. His military experience was confined to the Territorial Army, finishing as the second-in-command of an infantry company of 3/51 Highland Volunteers (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders). The closest he came to the experience of war was during a live-firing exercise supported by Chieftain tanks, one of which nearly reversed over him. In 1994 a First World War group photograph inspired him to find the families of all 46 men pictured, and the result was a major exhibition at the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres in 2015. Entitled 'A Group Photograph - Before, Now & In-Between', this was a mix of the traditional with innovative new ways of showing history and human life, ranging from intimate mementos to large scale installations. An appearance on the Jeremy Vine Show to talk about the book of the exhibition led to the busiest Christmas of his life. Still to come is the book based on his experience of this whole project: 'One Shutter Click - How A Single Photograph Took Over My Life'. ---- WILLIAM BOYD is a prize-winning writer renowned for his novels and screenplays. Not only is he an acute observer of human beings with all their foibles but his attention to detail in his historical research is matchless. All fifteen of his novels are still in print and include two that strongly feature the First World War: 'An Ice Cream War' and 'The New Confessions'. Another, 'Any Human Heart', has provided particular inspiration in the creation of this book - its central character grows up in the shadow of the First World War and attempts to navigate the 20th Century with the imperfect compass of a public school education coupled with a strong libido. William Boyd also wrote and directed 'The Trench', a film with stars including Daniel Craig and Danny Dyer and early roles for Ben Whishaw and Cillian Murphy. Set in the two days leading up to the attack on the Somme, it gives a portrait of humans battling with their own minds and each other as well as with the enemy. It doesn't just show the war's history but also how humans deal with beliefs and the unknown.

List of Maps 8
Foreword by William Boyd 9
The Group Photograph 10
Introduction 11
Life before the Letters 13
Photographs of Charles & Margaret 30
Notes on the Presentation of the Letters 32
Ranks & Structure of the British Army 33
The Letters 35
Life after the Letters 375
Additional Stories 387
Charles & Margaret's Ancestors 419
Late Additions 423
Following in Charles Bartlett's Footsteps 431
Closing Thoughts 445
Index of People 447
Index of Subjects and Events 457
Thanks 459
Family Tree Drawing of the Bartlett Family 462
'A Group Photograph, Before, Now & In-Between' 464