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Herman Cyril McNeile (1888–1937) commonly known as H. C. McNeile or Sapper, was a British soldier and author. Drawing on his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, he started writing short stories and getting them published in the Daily Mail. McNeile's stories are either directly about the war, or contain people whose lives have been shaped by it. His war stories were considered by contemporary audiences as anti-sentimental, realistic depictions of the trenches, and as a “celebration of the qualities of the Old Contemptibles”. McNeile's view, as expressed through his writing, was that war was a purposeful activity for the nation and for individuals, even if that purpose was later wasted: a “valuable chance at national renewal that had been squandered”. The positive effects of war on the individual were outlined by McNeile, in The Lieutenant and Others and Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R.E, in which he wrote about “the qualities of leadership and selflessness essential to 'inspire' subalterns”. His war stories include descriptions of fights between individuals that carry a sporting motif: in Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R.E., he writes, «To bag a man with a gun is one thing; there is sport—there is an element of one against one, like when the quality goes big game shooting. But to bag twenty men by a mine has not the same feeling at all, even if they are Germans”
Content:
Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R.E.
The Lieutenant and Others
John Walters
Jim Brent
The Man in Ratcatcher
Men, Women and Guns
Mufti
No Man's Land
Word of Honour
