Edward Brittain

Edward Harold Brittain MC (30 November 1895 – 15 June 1918) was a British Army officer who fought in World War I and was immortalised by his sister Vera Brittain in Testament of Youth.

Brittain was born at Macclesfield, Cheshire, to paper manufacturer Thomas Arthur Brittain (1864–1935) and his wife Edith Bervon Brittain (1868–1948). His only sibling was his older sister Vera, to whom he was very close. Brittain was educated at Uppingham School, where he made two close friends, Roland Leighton and Victor Richardson. Brittain was a good student, though seldom a prizewinner, at Uppingham and also served in the Officers' Training Corps. A talented violinist, he hoped to become a composer, but his father expected him to enter either the family paper making firm or the Civil Service.

Brittain left school in July 1914, just before World War I broke out. He had been admitted to New College, Oxford, but after the outbreak of hostilities, he joined the British Army and was commissioned as a temporary second lieutenant into the Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) on 19 November 1914. He remained in England for the first year and a half of the war; he was held back from several transfers to the front by his Colonel who was not impressed by Edward's supercilious attitude. During this period, he became close friends with fellow officer Geoffrey Thurlow. Leighton, who had been serving on the Western Front, died of wounds in December 1915, and soon afterwards, in early 1916, Brittain was posted to the Western Front. He was wounded in the left arm and the right thigh in the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. Brittain was sent to First London General Hospital, where his sister was then working as a V.A.D. nurse. He was subsequently awarded the Military Cross for his service on the Somme. The citation stated that Brittain was awarded the M.C. "For conspicuous gallantry and leadership during an attack. He was severely wounded, but continued to lead his men with great bravery and coolness until a second wound disabled him."

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