Vera mary brittain biography

Short Bio Vera Brittain (1893-1970)

Vera Brittain was an English writer, feminist and pacifist, who wrote the best selling “Testament of Youth” an account of her traumatic experiences during the First World War.

Vera Brittain was born 29 December 1893 in Newcastle to a wealthy family who owned paper mills.

After studying at a boarding school in Kingswood, Surrey, she went to Somerville College, Oxford University to study English Literature.

In 1915, she broke off from her studies to work as a volunteer nurse in France helping the wounded soldiers of the Western Front.

The war proved a traumatic experience. Her fiancée Roland Leighton, two close friends, and her brother Edward Brittain were all killed in the war.

She documented her experiences as a nurse, in her autobiography “Testament of Youth”.

She describes how the young nurses worked long hours, in poor conditions. Despite the privations, Vera recounts how she engaged in her duties with great enthusiasm:

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