ONE OF THE MOST memorable books to come out of the Great War of 1914-18 which was written in Bourne is still in print and providing inspiration for modern novelists. Her Privates We was the work of an Australian, Frederic Manning, who liked this town so much that he called his hero Private Bourne and the book was hailed by critics as the true voice of the trenches. 

Manning was born at Sydney on 22nd July 1882, the fourth son of Sir William Manning, financier and politician and four times Lord Mayor of Sydney, and his wife Honora, both of Irish descent. He was a lifelong asthmatic and at the age of fifteen he came to England with his tutor the Rev Arthur Galton who had gone to Australia as private secretary to the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Robert Duff.  

Galton was appointed Vicar of Edenham, near Bourne, in 1904, and Manning, who had decided to pursue a literary career, went to live with him at the vicarage. He remained there until Galton died in office in 1910 and, finding himself homeless, he moved in as a lodger with the village schoolmaster and his family at their home in School Lane. He led a retiring, leisured and scholarly life, steeping himself in the classics, although he made occasional visits to London where all of his works were published and he was also principal book reviewer for the London Spectator from 1909 to 1914 which still has records of fees paid for book reviews that were sent to him at Edenham.  

In 1915, he enlisted as a private in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry, serving in France. He was promoted second lieutenant on 30th May 1917 in the Royal Irish Regiment of Foot but resigned his commission although it was his experiences during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 that were to provide the material for Her Privates We, dealing with the horrors of life in the trenches. The book was first published in 1929 under the title The Middle Parts of Fortune when it was highly praised by the literary figures of the day, including T E Lawrence, who had won fame as Lawrence of Arabia after leading the Arab revolt in the Middle East, and they soon became friends.  

Manning had a deep affection for Bourne and returned to the town for long periods. His physical condition, however, was deteriorating and he was in need of constant treatment for chronic respiratory problems and Dr John Galletly (1899-1993), who had become a friend as well as medical adviser, later recalled attending him in his bedroom at the Bull Hotel, now the Burghley Arms, where, with oxygen cylinders within reach, he would be inscribing yet another blank page with his meticulous but diminutive handwriting. 

Eventually, Manning became so unwell that Dr Galletly suggested a prolonged spell of sunshine and so he returned to Australia in 1934, a visit which was to be his last. During his time at the Bull, he had also become firm friends with the landlord and his wife, Fred and Eliza Scott, and their daughter Gladys and in later years she remembered seeing Lawrence arrive one afternoon, a slight figure in his Royal Air Force uniform, on a motor cycle on his way south, asking after Manning but after hearing that he was in Australia, he resumed his journey. 

It was during this period that the Scotts gave up the tenancy of the Bull after 12 years while Gladys, who had married Jack Gelsthorpe, had moved to a house in Burghley Street. Manning, however, had become such a part of the family that he wrote an affectionate letter from Sydney to Gladys on 25th March 1934 saying that as they had all left the Bull, he had less inclination to return to Bourne but still wanted to know whether the inn had changed much. "You might let me know what the Bull is like now in case I should want to go down later", he wrote, "you know the sort of thing, what the people are like and whether I could get the same rooms?" Then as an afterthought he added: "I don't suppose you and Jack want a boarder?"  

The couple took him at his word and agreed to have him and when he arrived in May that year, he was given the front room as a bedsitter. In the ensuing months, Dr Galletly became increasingly concerned about his state of health and as his condition worsened, persuaded him to move to a nursing home at Hampstead in London and actually took him there in his own motor car. Manning died on 22nd February 1935 at the age of 52 and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery beside his lifelong friend and literary hostess Mrs Alfred Fowler.  

Earlier this month, William Boyd, one of our most successful writers and author of 11 novels, wrote that Her Privates We had been one of the books that had been an inspiration for his latest offering Waiting for Sunrise, both for reference and reassurance (The Times Saturday Review/Books, February 11th). “If you want to know what it was like to be a soldier in the trenches, then this is the novel”, he said. “It is honest and unflinching and shows you how soldiers really spoke. All myths stripped away.” 

Manning’s portrait by Sir William Rothenstein hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London while a blue plaque erected by the town council in June 2009 to commemorate his connection with Bourne, can be seen on the front wall of the Burghley Arms in the town centre.