Gloucestershire Hero: Brigadier Patsy Pagan's Great War Experiences - Tapa dura

Small in physical stature Colonel, later Brigadier, Patsy Pagan was seen as a giant by the men of the Gloucestershire Regiment, whom he commanded for over three gruelling years of The Great War. He and his Battalion endured some of the hardest fighting and grimmest conditions on the Western Front; The battles of Loos 1915, Somme 1916 and Passchendaele 1917. Wounded three times, Pagan discharged himself from hospital to rejoin his men rather than be evacuated to Blighty. He reluctantly left his beloved Glosters when promoted to command a brigade for the closing months of the war. His brigade found itself as the last line of defence before the Channel against the Germans' 1918 offensive. The author uncovers the contribution and character of this great fighting soldier through personal records, trench diaries and other official papers. This is a stirring and inspiring read.

Peter Rostron was educated at Clifton and London University, where he read Arabic. He joined the Gloucestershire Regiment in 1964, and served worldwide including many tours in Northern Ireland before commanding the First Battalion. He was attached to the Special Branch in the Aden campaign, helped train the Zimbabwe Army and was a Defence Attache in South America. He was an instructor at the Army Staff College, and an International Fellow of the United States Army War College. Since leaving the army, he has combined security work in the Balkans, Middle East and South America, election monitoring from Armenia to Zambia and management consultancy in South Africa. His biography of General Sir Miles Dempsey, Monty's Army Commander, is in print with Pen and Sword Military.