I have used many sources and reference documents in an effort to write a short biography for each of 434 officers of the Gloucestershire Regiment who died in the Great War.   The "Foreword" to the Bond of Sacrifice, written by Field Marshal French, sums up what I am trying to achieve:

FOREWORD

by

Field-Marshall The Viscount French of Ypres

GCB, OM, GCVO, KCMG

Colonel 19th Hussars, Colonel Irish Guards

Colonel-in-Chief Royal Irish Regiment

I have been asked to write a foreword to this deeply interesting volume.   Its pages teem with deeds of gallantry and devoted self-sacrifice in the cause of King and Country.   The brief and concise narrative which recalls the glorious ending of each separate life must appeal with simple and pathetic grandeur to every British heart.

If we search for the many causes which have made for the British Army so magnificent a record, we will find amongst the most marked and prominent is the close and cordial relationship which existed at all times between Officers and men.

British soldiers have learnt from an experience which now covers centuries that in their Officers they possess leaders of indomitable courage, determination and self-reliance.   A mutual confidence is established which has ensured many a glorious victory and often converted imminent defeat and disaster into brilliant success.   The Officers who have fallen in this great war have splendidly maintained these traditions.   This is made abundantly evident to anyone who makes a study of the Rolls of Honour which have filled the columns of the daily paper.

Enormous beyond all precedent as these death rolls have been it is a fact that the proportion of Officers to men is in excess of what it has been in any former war.   Deep as must ever be the debt of gratitude which the nation owes to its soldiers in the ranks, at least the same is owing to the devoted and intrepid leaders who have so freely sacrificed their lives on these blood-stained fields.

These volumes are indeed well calculated to inspire the youth of this Country to maintain and improve the attributes which have enabled our fallen leaders to effect such splendid results for the Country and which, thank God, are bred in them, and, so to speak, form part of their flesh and blood.

All biographies are work in progress and info is added on an as and when basis.

   Target for completion is 2014.