A BOOK based on the remarkable diaries of a World War 1 soldier, which have lain unpublished for nearly 100 years will be launched this weekend by Great Sankey author Steve Corbett.
“An Accrington Pal – the diaries of Private Jack Smallshaw, September 1914 to March 1919” tells the amazing story of a soldier who survived against all the odds – and wrote down what he experienced in the “war to end all wars.”
It is published now to coincide with the centenary of the Battle of the Somme – and has been made available by his granddaughter, Louise Baird, of Stockton Heath, who inherited the diaries.
Jack Smallshaw was one of the first to volunteer when war broke out.
He joined the Accrington Pals, who are remembered more than any of the other Pals battalions, because of the appalling tragedy which befell them on the killing fields of the Somme.
On July 1, 1916 the battalion attacked the fortified village of Serre and were virtually wiped out on the slopes in front of the village. Jack was one of the very few who survived.
He continued to serve until the end of the war, often in the thick of the action.
The book is published by military history publisher, Helion and Company Ltd.
Diaries of a World War 1 hero
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