Editing Robert Graves (section)

==First World War==
At the outbreak of the [[First World War]] in August 1914, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the 2nd Battalion of the [[Royal Welch Fusiliers]] as a second lieutenant (on probation) on 12 August.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29102 |date=16 March 1915 |page=2640 |supp= |nolink=y}}</ref> He was confirmed in his rank on 10 March 1915,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29094 |date=9 March 1915 |page=2376 |supp= |nolink=y}}</ref> and received rapid promotion, being promoted to lieutenant on 5 May 1915 and to captain on 26&nbsp;October.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29177 |date=1 June 1915 |page=5213 |supp= |nolink=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=29372 |date=16 November 1915 |page=11459 |supp=y |nolink=y}}</ref> In August 1916 an officer who disliked him spread the rumour that he was the brother of a captured German spy who had assumed the name "[[Armgaard Karl Graves|Karl Graves]]".<ref>Graves (1960) p. 172.</ref> The problem resurfaced in a minor way in the [[Second World War]], when a suspicious rural policeman blocked his appointment to the [[Special Constabulary]].<ref>Graves (1960) p. 281.</ref> 
He published his first volume of poems, ''Over the Brazier'', in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about the experience of frontline conflict. In later years, he omitted his war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom." On 20 July at [[Attacks on High Wood|High Wood]] during the [[Battle of the Somme (1916)|Battle of the Somme]], he was so badly wounded by a shell fragment through the lung that he was expected to die and was officially reported as having died of wounds.<ref>Seymour (1995) p. 54.</ref> He gradually recovered and, apart from a brief spell back in France, spent the remainder of the war in England.<ref>Seymour (1995) pp. 58–60.</ref>

One of Graves's friends at this time was the poet [[Siegfried Sassoon]], a fellow officer in his regiment. They both convalesced at [[Somerville College, Oxford]], which was used as a hospital for officers. "How unlike you to crib my idea of going to the Ladies' College at Oxford," Sassoon wrote to him in 1917. At Somerville College, Graves met and fell in love with Marjorie, a nurse and professional pianist, but stopped writing to her once he learned she was engaged. About his time at Somerville, he wrote: "I enjoyed my stay at Somerville. The sun shone, and the discipline was easy."<ref name="RGraves">{{cite book |last1=Graves |first1=Robert |title=Good-Bye To All That |date=1985 |publisher=Vintage International Edition |isbn=9780385093309 |pages=248}}</ref> In 1917, Sassoon rebelled against the conduct of the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves feared Sassoon could face a [[court martial]] and intervened with the military authorities, persuading them that Sassoon was experiencing [[shell shock]] and that they should treat him accordingly.<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 214–16.</ref> Sassoon was sent to [[Craiglockhart Hydropathic|Craiglockhart]], a military hospital in Edinburgh, where he was treated by [[W. H. R. Rivers]] and met fellow patient [[Wilfred Owen]].<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 216–17.</ref> Graves was treated here as well. Graves also had shell shock, or [[neurasthenia]] as it was then called, but he was never hospitalised for it,

{{blockquote|I thought of going back to France, but realized the absurdity of the notion. Since 1916, the fear of gas obsessed me: any unusual smell, even a sudden strong scent of flowers in a garden, was enough to send me trembling. And I couldn't face the sound of heavy shelling now; the noise of a car back-firing would send me flat on my face, or running for cover.<ref>Graves (1960)  pp. 219–220.</ref>}}

The friendship between Graves and Sassoon is documented in Graves's letters and biographies. The intensity of their early relationship is demonstrated in Graves's collection ''[[Fairies and Fusiliers]]'' (1917), which contains many poems celebrating their friendship. Sassoon remarked upon a "heavy sexual element" within it, an observation supported by the sentimental nature of much of the surviving correspondence between the two men. Through Sassoon, Graves became a friend of Wilfred Owen, "who often used to send me poems from France".<ref>Graves (1960) p. 228.</ref><ref name="LitHub">{{cite web |last1=Korda |first1=Michael |title=How Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon Forged a Literary and Romantic Bond |url=https://lithub.com/How-Wilfred-Owen-and-Siegfried-Sassoon-Forged-a-Literary-and-Romantic-Bond |website=Literary Hub |access-date=22 May 2024 |date=16 April 2024}}</ref>

In September 1917, Graves was seconded for duty with a garrison battalion.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30354 |date=26 October 1917 |page=11096 |supp=y |nolink=y}}</ref> Graves's army career ended dramatically with an incident which could have led to a charge of [[desertion]]. Having been posted to [[Limerick]] in late 1918, he "woke up with a sudden chill, which I recognized as the first symptoms of [[Spanish influenza]]." "I decided to make a run for it," he wrote, "I should at least have my influenza in an English, and not an Irish, hospital." Arriving at [[London Waterloo station|London Waterloo Station]] with a high fever but without the official papers that would secure his release from the army, he chanced to share a taxi with a demobilisation officer also returning from Ireland, who completed his papers for him with the necessary secret codes.<ref>Graves (1960) pp. 231–33.</ref>