Ciontemporary inscription, "For Gen from Perry, xmas 1929"
Montague was not primarily a poet, however he did write some war poetry, while at the front including "In Hospital" and "unnamed Lines"

Journalist; author of a number of acclaimed books; 24th Battalion Royal Fusiliers, 1914; full sergeant (grenadier-sergeant), 1915; lieutenant; captain (intelligence); press-officer; after the war one of the authors in the 20's that wrote devastatingly of WWI. Disenchantment was his rather philisophical book about World War I combat.

If even a fraction of what people have written about him is true, he seems to have been a rare natural soldier. In the early years of the war, he was a combat engineer fighting in the trenches. Later he was promoted into intelligence, and finally an escort for battle-field VIPs.

Although intellectually horrified of war, he was an emotional `combat junkie'; recognizing and reconciling these two forces within him makes his writing of interest. Remarkably, Charles was 47 when he went into the trenches, and had no prior military experience. Unlike many of the younger men who survived (and wrote about) the experience of WWI trench warfare, he does not seem to have been personally shattered by the war. He must have had a good ear for artillery to survive all the shelling in which people describe him.

Among numerous other VIPs, he escorted H.G. Wells, Bernard Shaw, Clemenceau, and Loyd George at the front (the last 2 were the leaders of France and England).

Haig (the British general in command of the Western Front) once described him as `our white-haired lieutenant'.

Among his more famous works are A Hind let Loose, Disenchantment, and The Morning's War. A collection of infantry combat short stories, Fiery Particles, includes such stories as The First Blood Sweep and All for Peace and Quiet.

Wikipedia
"Montague was against the First World War prior to its commencement, but once it started he believed that it was right to support it in the hope of a swift resolution. In 1914, Montague was 47, which was well over the age for enlistment. But in order to enlist, he dyed his white hair black to enable him to fool the Army into accepting him. He began as a grenadier-sergeant, and rose to lieutenant and then captain of intelligence in 1915. Later in the war, he became an armed escort for VIPs visiting the battlefield. He escorted such personalities as H.G. Wells and Bernard Shaw. After the end of World War I he wrote in a strong anti-war vein. He wrote that "War hath no fury like a non-combatant."
Disenchantment (1922) was one of the first prose works to strongly criticise the way the war was fought, and is a pivotal text in the development of literature about the First World War."