In 1914, Valentine joined "C" Sqdn., Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars, rising to the rank of Major. During World War I, he wrote to close friend Winston Churchill in 1914. The following is an excerpt: Imagine a broad belt [of land], ten miles or so in width, stretching from the Channel to the German frontier near Basle, which is positively littered with the bodies of men…in which farms, villages, and cottages are shapeless heaps of blackened masonry; in which fields, roads and trees are pitted and torn and twisted by [artillery] shells... Fleming was killed by German bombing in Gillemont Farm area, Picardy, France on 20 May 1917. For his service, Valentine was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Fleming's obituary was written by Churchill

jane elder