Siegfried Sassoon grew up in the 1900's during the years before World War 1 in a small town in England. His family was wealthy, and he was raised in mansion called Wierleigh. His Father was Jewish, and his Mother Anglo-catholic. His Father`s family were wealthy merchants and his Father was disinherited for marrying a non-Jew. His Mother belonged to the family who sculpted some of the best known statues in London, making her a well-known, wealthy, public figure. He did not have a large family considering the time period, Siegfried was the second born of the three sons. Even though they had three children together his parents still got divorced when the kids were a young age, Siegfried only being four. When he was nine, his Father died at the young age of 34 due to tuberculosis. Because of the fact that his family is wealthy Siegfried was well educated and had a love for cricket. He even played professionally for a short time, playing cricket was only for the rich and famous during that time period and was considered a luxury.
Because of his patriotism Siegfried joined the army around the age of 25. He was in service when world war one was declared in 1914, but due to a previous injury he was out of action so could not go and fight right away. It was during this time that Sassoon's brother Hamo was killed during the Gallipoli Campaign, and based on the fact that Siegfried was unable to help on the war front he took his death very hard. In May 1915 Sassoon was put into the 3rd battalion as a second lieutenant, and later in the month of November was sent to France to join the 1st battalion. During his time in France he met Robert Graves who was a fellow poet. They became close friends, and Graves influences Sassoon's work largely. His work went from soft and romantic to hard topics about death, the war, and trench warfare. When Siegfried was serving on the Western Front due to his leadership of his unit and single handedly taking an enemy trench he was awarded a military cross; he was later unsuccessfully nominated for a Victoria Cross. Even though Sassoon was a highly ranked army officer he took a stand in 1917 about the conduct of war, a large influence on this decision the death of his friend David Thomas. It took him several years to deal with all the grief from the death. When Siegfried was able to return to action after being ill, he refused. He wrote and sent a letter to his Commanding Officer titled Finished with War: A Soldier's Declaration, it was seen as a act of treason. Sassoon was then declared unfit for service and diagnosed with "Shell Shock". During his treatment in the hospital he adopted his male physician as a kind if Father figure, the physician helped him through his shell shock and other issues. So when passed in 1922 it just added to the amount of grief Sassoon had. Siegfried met Wilfred Owen, another poet. Owen's would became more renowned for his work then Siegfried ever would, due to the large amount of help he gave him. Owen's was like a brother or best-friend to Sassoon, so when they both returned to service in 1918 in France and Wilfred was killed Siegfried added that the pile of grief he had. Soon after this event Sassoon was given the rank of lieutenant, and returned to the war front. In July 1918 Sassoon was shot in the head by friendly fire and was forced to spend the rest of the war in Britain, by this point he had been promoted to Capitan.
Not long after the war ended Sassoon became the Editor and Chief of the Daily Herald (1919), making him an important figure in the community. Siegfried on to do a lecture tour in Europe, Britain, and the US, widening his perspectives. He started to express his homo-sexuality a little more openly, and would have some affairs during his tour with some well-known artistic males. Sometime after 1923 three of his closest friends passed away, seriously affecting any steps he took towards being happy. During his time in America, Sassoon dabbled in writing novels, and in 1928 he anonymously published his first book. This book would go on to win a award for fiction writing. Siegfried wrote several other greatly loved novels during his life time as well. Sassoon, trying to find fulfillment, had many love affairs with males, one who stays his life long friend. Despite Siegfried's homo-sexuality, in 1933 he married Hester Gatty. They would go on to have one child together, something Sassoon had long wanted. His son would go on to have great success, becoming a author, linguist, and scientist. Sassoon had a great love for his son, and even with that got a divorce a few years following the second world war. In 1951 Siegfried became the Commander of the Order if the British Empire due to past influences. Near the end of his life Siegfried converted to a Roman Catholicism Faith, and it became a regular routine of his to visit the nuns at his monastery. Around this time he became very interested the supernatural, and even joined a organization dedicated to paranormal investigation and research. A week before Sassoon would turn 81 he died of stomach cancer.
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