The Assault Heroic 1895-1926 Richard Perceval Graves

One of Robert's great strengths was always the whole-hearted way in which he threw himself into whatever he was doing; but this meant that he was sometimes a man of extremes; and his 'all-or-nothing' approach to friendship is vividly highlighted by the contrast between his sudden and complete abandonment of Johnstone, and the heroic efforts which he made to save Sassoon.

On Thursday 12 July 1917, the day that Robert wrote his worried letter to Eddie Marsh, Sassoon had received a telegram ordering him to report at once to Litherland.255 When he did so, on Friday the 13th,256 he received a surprisingly warm welcome. The Colonel was away on leave, but had left his senior major as acting C.O. with clear instructions. Sassoon should be asked to withdraw his ultimatum and told that if he did so, the whole incident would be forgotten

Sassoon refused. His aim was to gain maximum publicity for his stand against the war by forcing the army to court-martial him, and when he refused, he did so fully expecting and indeed hoping to be placed under arrest. Instead, he was told to stay quietly at an hotel in Liverpool until higher authority had been consulted.

In the meantime, Robert had decided on a course of action. First he wrote to the senior major -not knowing that he was acting C.O. - asking him to persuade the Colonel to see things 'in a reasonable light'. Sassoon was clearly ill, and must be protected from himself. Robert received in reply 'a most kind sympathetic letter...saying that Siegfried would be ordered a Medical Board and the best would be done to treat the whole thing as a medical case'..257

Robert's next step was 'to get out of Osborne' so that he could 'attend to things'.

He knew that he was by no means well enough to leave the convalescent home, but he persuaded a Medical Board to pass him as fit for home service. They allowed him to leave Osborne on the morning of Monday 16 July, and Robert wired the news to APG, who met his cab coming up Wimbledon Hill.

On Tuesday morning Robert went into town to discuss Siegfried's case with some of those who knew him best. First he lunched with Eddie Marsh -now intending to use six of Robert's poems in his next volume of Georgian Poetry -and then he kept an appointment to meet Robert Ross. Graves had to tell Ross that he had no up-to-date news. He had not yet received a letter written to him by Siegfried on Sunday night, which had arrived at Osborne after his departure; nor could he have known that Sassoon had now been ordered to appear before a Medical Board, but had torn up the order, and had then spent the rest of the day learning poems by heart so that he would have something to recite in prison.