Before Gallipoli: The 29^th Division in Warwickshire and North Oxfordshire, December 1914 - March 1915, Chris Holland, Warwickshire Great War Publications, 144p, 2014, £9.95, ISBN: 978-0-9574216-2-2. Obtainable from Chris Holland, Plott Bungalow, Plott Lane, Stretton-on-Dunsmore, Rugby CV23 9HR.

Among the many books now being published on World War I, Chris Holland has produced a fascinating study based on an event which took place in Warwickshire in March 1915. King George V arrived near Stretton-on-Dunsmore to carry out an inspection of the newly formed 29^th Division. This Division, formed mainly from British troops previously based overseas, was intended to go to the
Dardanelles in an operation to remove Turkey from the war. About a month after the royal inspection, the 29^th Division was landed at Gallipoli, with disastrous consequences, including heavy casualties. 

This book is, however, about more than the military fortunes of the soldiers. The author has looked carefully into what happened to the men before they left for Gallipoli. Basing his research on archives, letters and newspapers of the period, he has put together an account of how the men came into Warwickshire for training and how they lived in an area previously unknown to them.

He has examined problems with ‘billeting' in places such as Coventry and Nuneaton. He has discovered that relations between the soldiers and civilians were mainly good. Knowing they were only temporary ‘residents', on the whole, the soldiers did their best to fit in and help their hosts. When they left Warwickshire, both hosts and guests had fond memories of each other. News of the Division's losses at Gallipoli and later on the Western Front saddened the locals as much as the losses of their own kin.

Well-illustrated with contemporary photographs, this book is thoroughly recommended for both local historians and also the general reader interested in this period of history who wants to study the effects of war on the home front.