Reilly 151.

' A Soldier's Letter to his Sons'. 104 pages. Light blue cloth.19.2 x 12.3 cms. Book fine. Dustwrapper near fine but slight wear to edges.

Stephen Haggard, a luminary of the English theater in the 1930's, wrote this for his two sons early in the second World War. He was then killed in the war, without seeing them again.

Stephen Hubert Avenel Haggard (1911-1943) was a British actor, writer and poet.

Staff Captain in the Devonshire regiment and Intelligence Corps. Shot dead in mysterious circumstances on a train from Jerusalem to Cairo on 24 February 1943

wiki
At the outbreak of the Second World War Haggard joined the British Army, serving as a captain in the Intelligence Corps.[1] His wife and two sons went to the United States in 1940, where his father was consul-general in New York. Shortly after their departure, he wrote his sons a letter, subsequently published in the Atlantic Monthly.[12] Haggard was posted to the Middle East and worked for the Department of Political Warfare.[7][6] There he met the author Olivia Manning and her husband, the broadcaster R.D. Smith. The latter recruited Haggard to play starring roles in his radio productions of Henry V and Hamlet on local radio in Jerusalem.[6] While in the Middle East, Haggard fell in love with a beautiful Egyptian married woman whose husband worked in Palestine. Haggard was overworked and felt that the war had destroyed his acting career. He was on the edge of nervous breakdown when after some months the woman decided to end the


relationship. Haggard shot himself on a train between Cairo and Palestine on February 25 1943 at the age of 31. Manning based the character Aidan Sheridan in her Fortunes of War novel sequence on Haggard.[7][13] The manner of Haggard's death was hushed up, and is not mentioned in the biography of Haggard written by Christopher Hassell and published in 1948.[13] Haggard is buried in Heliopolis War Cemetery, in Cairo, Egypt.[14]

he manner of Haggard's death was hushed up, and is not mentioned in the biography of Haggard written by Christopher Hassell and published in 1948.[13]