Gerald Howard-Smith's life is intriguing both in its own right and as a vehicle for exploring the world in which he lived. Brought up in London, and educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was one of the so-called 'Lost Generation' whose lives were cut short by the First World War. This important new biography explores such complex and important issues as childhood and adolescence, class relations, sporting achievement, manliness and masculinity, metropolitan-provincial relationships, and forms of commemoration. It will be of interest to all those seeking to understand the economic, social, and cultural life of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain.