Siegfried Sassoon, the poet of "Suicide in the Trenches" fought in the 1st World War, and won the Military Cross for 'gallantry in action'. However in July 1917 he was sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital near Edinburgh where he met Wilfred Owen, another famous war poet. He had become destroyed by the trauma of the 1st World War, and disheartened by the generals leading it. His anti-war stance was confirmed on July 30, when his statement demanding …showed first 75 words of 1269 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1269 total…was at the way the man was lauding himself to friends, while here it is more aimed at those who do not understand the 'torture' the youth had to undergo in the 1st World War. Like James Fenton's "Cambodia" this was also intended to be published back home. Unlike "Cambodia" it was not meant to be an anti-war piece, but rather urging for greater understanding. It was published in The Cambridge Magazine on February 23rd 1918.