MEMOIRS of a First World War soldier, treasured for many years by his daughter who lives in Herefordshire, can now be widely read for the first time in over 100 years.

Marion L. Stapleton Harley, who lives at Hope-under-Dinmore, does not claim the new book, ‘Advance and be Recognised’ as hers. Instead, memories of the “horrors of war” come from the personal accounts of her late father, Arthur Stapleton, a self-made man who survived two world wars and went on to launch a successful business, Advance Electronics.

Marion has a collection of published obituaries she received after her father’s death in 1978. She approached publishers, Austin Macauley and found they were keen for Arthur’s memoirs to reach a wider audience. She has written an introduction, having spent over two years collating contents for the book, with only a mobile phone to help with her researches.

“The blurb is quite graphic, but so is war. I was not prepared to have any ‘watering down’ of the contents,” she said. “Few families survived untouched by the First World War.”

Marion, who has lived in the county since 1991, felt it would be timely to have her father’s work published in this centenary year. “My father’s autobiography is a truly absorbing read,” she explained. “Arthur’s words bring to life the raw emotion and images seen as he lived through the traumatic years of war.”

Arthur was born in 1896, a young man from working class roots. “He was a machine gunner in WW1 and thrown into the horrors of war,” said Marion. Later, during the Second World War, Arthur was an Air Raid Warden, and in the 1960s decided to write his memoirs.

“Having Arthur's words published means such a great deal to me,” she said. “I was adopted from within the family when my 'parents' were of elderly grandparent age.

“I had no idea about the esteem in which Arthur was held,” she admitted. “I learned more about him after his death than when he was alive.

“His words give comfort and hope, proving that those who go to war, or begin with nothing, can still reach for the stars and that those stars are within reach.

“His years fighting for King and country, his years striving to succeed in business, and finally, Arthur did advance and was recognised.”