A poem by a High Wycombe soldier describing “six months of hell” during battle has been published for the first time by a war museum exactly 100 years after it was written.

John Gray wrote ‘Neuve Chapelle’ after the bloody Battle of Neuve Chapelle in France in March 1915, vividly describing the horrors he had witnessed on the battlefield.

The powerful piece of historic literature has now been published as part of the National Army Museum’s commemorative online portal, First World War in Focus.

Taking place during atrocious weather conditions – which left the ground muddy and hard to manoeuvre - the British managed to defeat the Germans at the notorious battle and break through their defensive lines.

Clearly affected by what he had seen, Gray wrote the seven-stanza poem and accompanying story afterwards, inspired by the huge loss of life around him.

He describes the beginning of the fighting as being like “hell was let loose, by a wild awful sound”.

Gray - like many who fought in the war’s biggest battles - took no pleasure in eventual victory, writing: “Never was a victory more dearly bought, shootin’ an’ stabbin’ the blood flowing fast.”

Born in High Wycombe and raised on Green Street by parents Frederick and Eliza, Gray was the eldest of five children and went by the nickname ‘Jack’.

Like many boys in rural England, the army offered an opportunity for adventure and foreign travel which seemed to be available only a select few.

He enlisted in the Royal Berkshire Regiment in 1905, giving his occupation as a ‘wool sorter’, and went on to achieve the ranking of Sergeant, serving in Ireland and India.

Gray – who held the rank of Sergeant Major - was awarded a Distinguished Conduct Medal later in 1915 for leading his company in battle after all the officers had been killed.

He is cited as displaying ‘coolness and courage’ while under heavy fire.

Gray was then commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1916, but he would not survive the war.

While engaging in an assault on the German lines on March 16, Gray was killed by enemy fire. His remains were interred at the Sailly-Saillisel British Cemetery on the Somme.

To see the poem in full see here