The Horror of Loos - I saw a football in No Man's Land, by Patrick Macgill | 25 September 1915 | Episode 88
Published on 25 September 1915
The author of "Children of the Dead End" and other well-known works, Patrick Macgill, was a stretcher-bearer in the London Irish Rifles at the battle of Loos.
This account of his experiences was written at the time with all the power of an inspired writer describing an immediate journey into the land of blood and horror. He tells the famous story of how his comrades went over the top with a football.
Before he joined the Army in 1914, Patrick Macgill had been a navvy and a farm worker and a research student, and had moreover by then established a growing reputation as an author.