An account of Delville Wood

17 October 2026

The latest WFA video in the 'I Was There!' series has just been published, in this we hear from Pte G A Lawson who, in 1918, wrote an account of Delville Wood which was published as "Memories of Delville Wood, South Africa's great battle". In 1939, an extract of this was published in the partwork (weekly magazine) 'I Was There!' as "The Hell that was Delville Wood - an Epic Story". It would seem, however that the publishers of the original piece made an error - the authors name was in fact John Lawson.

In the account which we have narrated, we get a clear idea of the tremendous demands that were made on the South Africa Brigade during the battle of the Somme in Delville Wood.

Private Lawson, of the 3rd South African Infantry, was a veteran of the Boer War and so was his pal, Private Breytenbach, though at that time they fought on opposite sides.

The Hell that was Delville Wood - an Epic Story, by Pte G A Lawson, July 15-18, 1916

IWT Videos on the website

With the launch of the new website, we are grouping the videos in a new area, and these can be filtered using the drop down option. Please do go and have a play with this function to pick out groups of videos - for example The retreat from Mons to the entire Gallipoli campaign.

Just click here to find these: I Was There Videos

Explore more

The videos are also grouped (following the format in the original magazine) into 'Chapters' (on YouTube these are 'playlists') and can be seen on the WFA's YouTube channel. These playlists are here:

The War Clouds Break: July 29 - Aug 9 1914 Chapter/Playlist 1
Mons: The Going Up to Battle: August 9 - August 23, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 2
Mons: The Fighting Retreat: August 24 - September 6, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 3
The Marne and the Aisne: September 5 - September 22, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 4
The Antwerp Adventure: September 25 - October 13, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 5
The First Battle of Ypres: October 14 - November 11, 1914 Chapter/Playlist 6
Last Days of the Year: November - December 1914 Chapter/Playlist 7
Winter and Neuve Chapelle: January 1 - March 13 1915 Chapter/Playlist 8
Gallipoli: Bombardment and Landings: March 17 - April 27 1915 Chapter/Playlist 9
Ypres: The Second Battle: April 22 - May 7, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 10
Gallipoli: Summer Interlude: May - July, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 11
The Western Front: Summer 1915 May 9 - August 13, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 12
Home Front, First Bombs on England: May 31 - October 12, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 13
Loos: Ill-starred offensive: September 25 - October 19, 1915 Chapter/Playlist 14
Gallipoli: The Last Days: August 6, 1915 - January 1916 Chapter/Playlist 15
'Sideshows' of 1915: April - May 1915 Chapter/Playlist 16
Prelude to the Somme, March - June, 1916 Chapter/Playlist 17
The Battle of Jutland: May 31 - 1 June 1916 Chapter/Playlist 18
The Somme, First Phase: July 1 - 9, 1916 Chapter/Playlist 19
The Somme, The Middle Phase, July 14 - September 15, 1916 Chapter/Playlist 20

Searchable Magazine Archive

I Was There! magazine was originally published in 51 weekly issues between 1938 and 1939. The Western Front Association has undertaken a long-term project to digitize and narrate these historical accounts. The digital scans are available to members as PDF files in the Searchable Magazine Archive.

Not a member? Join us and get access to a wealth of digitised resources.