E-text prepared by Suzanne Lybarger, Richard J. Shiffer,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(/)
from images generously made available by the
Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries
(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive: Canadian Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/oneyoungman00willuoft |
Published in 1917 by
Hodder & Stoughton Ltd.
The simple and true story of a clerk who
enlisted in 1914, who fought on the Western
Front for nearly two years, was severely
wounded at the Battle of the Somme, and
is now on his way back to his desk
Printed for private circulation
Printed in Great Britain by
C. F. Roworth Ltd., 88 Fetter Lane, London, E.C.4
TO THE GREATLY BELOVED MEMORY
OF
ONE YOUNG MAN
WHO FOUNDED THE Y.M.C.A.
MY UNCLE
SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS
I am glad that this very personal little book is to be re-published,if only for private circulation, for it rings as true to-day as it didyesterday.
It tells the story of one young man in the Great War, but, in fact, itreveals no less the personality of the writer who knit the young man'sstory together.
The young man continues—the writer has passed on.
My brother is revealed here, not as the famous publisher, but as a manwhose sympathy was so quick and passionate that he literally lived thesuffering and trials of others.
It is this living sympathy, given so freely, that lies like a wreathof everlasting flowers on his memory now.
It is no longer a secret that the real name of the "Sydney Baxter" ofthis story is Reginald Davis; and those of us who know him and havewatched every step of his progress, from his first small job of the[Pg viii]"pen and ledger" to the Secretaryship of a great Company, areastonished at the understanding and accuracy of this portrayal of ayoung man's inner self and outer deeds.
It is true that Sir Ernest Hodder-Williams did little more thancomment on the diary written by Davis himself. But how well heexplains it; how well he reads into its touching cheerfulness and itssplendid sorrow the eternal truth that only by suffering and obediencecan the purposes of God and man be fulfilled.
Davis has won his spurs. He bears the marks of his service in theGreat War with honour and with never a complaint. His old chief andchronicler was proud of him then. He would be proud of him to-day.
INTRODUCES ONE YOUNG MAN