"The original version of this memoir was entitled The lighter side of a tunneller s life; he has hoped to get it published in the late thirties, but this was a period when many publishers considered that there was memoir fatigue as regards the Great War and a new war was looming. With a background in mining and tunneling (the internal evidence suggests that some of this was done in South Africa), he served with a Tunnelling Company and was then transferred to GHQ in Montreuil to handle mining plans and records. The British organized their mining at Army and GHQ level, with a close control on operational activity being reserved to GHQ. In due course he was appointed as one of the Assistant Inspectors of Mines, a small group of Royal engineers officers who operated as the eyes and ears of the Inspector of Mines, who exercised overall control on mining operations. His activity in this role is particularly important for the period after the June 1917 Messines Offensive, when the use of mining for blows against the enemy substantially diminished indeed, all but disappeared and the tunneling companies were reallocated to a new range of tasks."