Background
West was born in Norfolk, educated at Blundell"s School and Balliol College, Oxford and killed by a sniper in 1917.
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Arthur West
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Balliol College.
Career
West enlisted as a Private with the Public Schools Battalion in January 1915. This growing disillusionment found expression in two particularly powerful war poems he wrote during this time: "God, How I Hate You" and "Night Patrol" which stand deservedly alongside those of Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. In his diary he describes reading Bertrand Russell"s writings on pacifism, which made a great impression on him.
In August 1916 he became a second lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.
Shortly after, he wrote to his new battalion threatening to desert the army - but he could not bring himself to post the letter. Less than a year later, on 3 April 1917, he was shot dead by a sniper"s bullet near Bapaume.
Politics
He joined from a feeling of duty and patriotism, but the war had a profound effect on him. An individualist who hated routine and distrusted discipline, he developed an intense abhorrence to army life and began to question the very core of his beliefs – in religion, patriotism and the reason for war.
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Born
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Died
April 3, 1917 (aged 26) -
Nationality
British