About Dillwyn Parrish Starr

Dillwyn Parrish Starr led a short life but he lived it at a tremendous speed, when the First World War broke out he was a star American Football Player and scholar at Harvard. However spurred on by his convictions he sailed to the U.K. in a rush and signed up for service as soon as possible; thereafter he saw a great deal of fighting with the Royal Navy Armored car detachment.

However as the war stagnated to the static bloody fighting in the trenches he felt compelled to transfer to the prestigious Grenadier Guards in the British Army. Always heavily engaged Dillwyn fought with great courage in both Flanders and on the Gallipoli campaign, before falling to the overwhelming fire of the Germans at Ginchy during the infernal Somme battle in 1916.

His letters are a vivid memento to a man who was universally respected even in a regiment with such high standards as the Grenadiers Guards, cheerful and upbeat snuffed out too soon in the hell of World War One.