The diary that proves Anthony Seldon wrong about the first world war and the public schools

In March 1915 the 27th Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, with an already distinguished political career behind him, took the unorthodox step of enlisting, aged 43, as a private in the Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1916 he returned to England from France to take up important government duties, but for 14 months he had been a medical orderly on the Western Front, the only cabinet minister to serve in the ranks in the first world war. He was based at the casualty clearing station at Hazebrouck, close to the principal areas of British military activity in 1915. He kept a diary throughout this time — now admirably edited by his cousin Christopher Arnander — giving a unique close-up view of the great war though the eyes of a shrewd participant.

The popular image of nursing volunteers as enchanting angels of mercy gets a battering. Crawford found them competent but bossy and inconsiderate: ‘They ate chocolate all over the operating table and dropped cherry stones on the floor.