The Distant Drum
A Memoir of a Guardsman in the Great War
F.E Noakes
Found in: World War I Books
All Frontline Books
Hardback 256 pages
ISBN: 9781848325630
Published: 12 July 2010
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We waited in silence, each man occupied with his own secret thoughts and no doubt wrestling with his own secret fears. I think that half-hour was probably the worst I have ever spent. Slowly and inexorably the minutes passed, second by second, and the time approached which might be the end of everything for me. All my efforts to screw up my courage, all my fatalistic self-assurances that “what is to be, will be”, became more and more useless, and hope seemed to ooze away with every second... Frederick Noakes, 1917
Guardsman Frederick Noakes fought on the Western Front for the last 18 months of the Great War. In 1934, he wanted to write up his ‘adventures’ while his memory was still ‘undimmed’, using the letters he wrote home during 1917–1919 as the basis for the memoir. His eloquent text, with his views on politics, morale and the trenches, moved friends to persuade Noakes to publish the work privately in 1952.
Fen Noakes did not consider himself a hero, but the dignity with which he conducted himself under the most dreadful conditions suggest otherwise. His articulate and effective prose gives a voice to the average soldier in the trenches. Professor Peter Simkins provides an introduction to this new edition, which also includes a foreword by Carole Noakes, niece of the author.
Frederick Elias Noakes was born in January 1896 in Kent. He was rejected for military service several times between 1914 and 1917 on medical grounds. A determined man, he sought to improve his fitness and finally succeeded, and was called up in June 1917. He was wounded twice, but recuperated to fight in the final push of the war.
Guardsman Frederick Noakes fought on the Western Front for the last 18 months of the Great War. In 1934, he wanted to write up his ‘adventures’ while his memory was still ‘undimmed’, using the letters he wrote home during 1917–1919 as the basis for the memoir. His eloquent text, with his views on politics, morale and the trenches, moved friends to persuade Noakes to publish the work privately in 1952.
Fen Noakes did not consider himself a hero, but the dignity with which he conducted himself under the most dreadful conditions suggest otherwise. His articulate and effective prose gives a voice to the average soldier in the trenches. Professor Peter Simkins provides an introduction to this new edition, which also includes a foreword by Carole Noakes, niece of the author.
Frederick Elias Noakes was born in January 1896 in Kent. He was rejected for military service several times between 1914 and 1917 on medical grounds. A determined man, he sought to improve his fitness and finally succeeded, and was called up in June 1917. He was wounded twice, but recuperated to fight in the final push of the war.
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