Siegfried Sassoon is buried in St Andrew's Churchyard, Mells, Somerset,
England.
Gravestone of Siegfried Sassoon
Photograph by Rhys Jones
During his first spell at the front line Sassoon was awarded the
Military Cross for bravery - a medal which he later threw away. However, by 1917 he had become an outspoken opponent of
the war. His Declaration of Wilful Defiance nearly resulted in a
court-martial but Robert Graves intervened on his behalf
and he was admitted instead to Craiglockhart War Hospital, Edinburgh suffering
from 'shell-shock'. It was here that he met Wilfred
Owen and encouraged him to write poetry. On returning
to the trenches, he further proved his bravery by crawling within 50
yards of enemy machine-guns to hurl grenades, but while making his way
back to his own lines he was mistaken for a German and shot; the bullet
grazing his skull. In
1957 Sassoon converted to Roman
Catholicism and subsequently wanted to be buried in St. Dominic's Churchyard near
to Monsignor Ronald Knox, who died in the same year.
Sassoon died at his home at Heytesbury Hall, Wiltshire on 1st September 1967 - one week before his 81st
birthday. |
