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"First published in Australia 1943. Second edition published in England 1944. Reprinted March 1944."

Hore-Ruthven wrote several war poems which were published in Australian and English newspapers. A collection of his poems was published in Australia in 1943 under the title The Happy Warrior, with a preface written by his mother Lady Gowrie, and republished in London in 1944 under the title Desert Warrior: Poems. His collected letters were published in London in 1950 under the title Joy of youth. A memorial fountain was constructed at Government House in Canberra.

Major The Honourable Alexander Hardinge Patrick Hore-Ruthven (30 August 1913 – 24 December 1942) was a British soldier and poet. Hore-Ruthven was born in Quetta in India. He was the only surviving child of Alexander Hore-Ruthven and his wife, Zara Eileen née Pollok.

He studied at Cambridge University from 1931. While rusticated from Cambridge in 1932 due to a youthful indiscretion - he had bitten a policeman's nose - he met the society beauty Pamela Fletcher during a stag hunt on Exmoor. Their mutual lack of money delayed their marriage. In the meantime, he joined the Rifle Brigade in 1933 after he graduated. He served in Malta for three years. His father was created Baron Gowrie in 1935.

Hore-Ruthven and Pamela Fletcher were finally married at Westminster Abbey on 4 January 1939, with her father, the Reverend Arthur Henry Fletcher, officiating. Their first son, Grey, was born on 26 November 1939.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Hore-Ruthven was posted to Cairo. Leaving their infant son with her parents in Dublin, his wife followed him to Cairo, where she became friends with Freya Stark and Jacqueline Lampson. She worked in Intelligence with the anti-Nazi Arab Brotherhood of Freedom, and he joined the newly-formed SAS. His wife returned to Ireland in 1942, where she gave birth to their second son, Malise, on 14 May 1942. Promoted to Temporary Major, Hore-Ruthven died in Misurata Italian Hospital in Libya, having been severely wounded in a raid on a fuel dump near Tripoli. He was buried in the war cemetery in Tripoli. He was survived by his wife and two young sons, never having seen either.