Milne Enlists and Serves in World War I
Poet involved
What happened
A. A. Milne enlisted in the British Army at the outbreak of World War I and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, later transferring to the Royal Corps of Signals. He served on the Western Front, experiencing the horror and futility of trench warfare at first hand. He was invalided home after contracting trench fever on the Somme in 1916 and spent time recovering in England.
Literary impact
The war's violence and absurdity intensified Milne's pacifist convictions and left a lasting mark on his sensibility. His post-war writing, including his 1934 anti-war book 'Peace with Honour,' shows how directly his combat experience shaped his moral outlook, and the escapist, idyllic quality of the Pooh stories can be partly read as a retreat into innocence after wartime trauma.
Source: Wikipedia
