THE son of a hero soldier who recorded in detail his experiences of the First World War has published the diaries – which have been given approval by a Western Front expert.

James Sadler M.M, of the 9th Royal Fusiliers (Service) Battalion survived the war having enlisted with Kitchener’s First Army in 1914, and recorded his impressions of everyday life in the trenches while convalescing at home after being injured and stretchered away from the battlefield at Hardecourt aux Bois in France in August 1918.

Gardener to Fusilier is the story of Sergeant Sadler’s war as well as the story of the 9th Royal Fusiliers, and includes a foreword by Peter Simkins, professor of Western Front Studies at Wolverhampton University and president of the Western Front Association.

Sgt Sadler’s son – also called James Sadler, from Dalton, Richmond – has taken his father’s record and combined it with his own research about the battalion, giving both the human experiences alongside the official details of what the battalion was doing at the time.

He said: “My Dad was a gardener but had wanted to sign up straight away to serve his country.

“He was involved in major battles including Loos, the Somme, Arras, and the Allied Advance in the final 100 days, winning a Military Medal for bravery on the seventh day of the Somme.”

Mr Sadler said he had always intended to transcribe his father’s diaries but bringing up three boys and his teaching career meant he only started the work in 1999 when he retired.

He said: “The accounts tell a lot about what life was like the in trenches – he talks about the food, helping the Royal Engineers, digging the trenches, and putting up barbed wire at night.”

Sgt Sadler was involved in three major actions of the Somme in 1916, at Ovillers on July 7, after which he was awarded the Military Medal, at Pozieres in August and at the Transloy Ridges in October.

Mr Sadler said: “Dad was wounded at Hardecourt aux Bois in August 1918 when he was hit by shrapnel.

“He needed 27 stitches and was scarred for the rest of his life.”

Sgt Sadler described the moment: “The ‘bullets’ from the shell spread all around us, one catching my helmet which made a perfectly round hole and finished up making a very deep groove in my skull.”

He was also hit in the chest and leg but managed to climb into a German trench.

He added: “My right eye was closed up with blood - but the worst wound which was causing me the most pain was the one in my chest. Although I felt myself in a terrible condition I managed to get a good way down the trench where I was lucky enough to meet two stretcher bearers.”

Mr Sadler said: “He enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in 1914, at 23; married my mother in 1937, and I was born in 1947 when he was 57.

“He died in 1951 when I was four, and my completion of the book is, I feel, a fitting tribute to him and the men he fought with. I hope he would be proud.”

The book is published by Helion, specialists in military history, and is available from Amazon and from Castle Hill Book Shop in Richmond.