Robert Derby Holmes

Robert Derby Holmes (1879–1935) was an American journalist and writer best known for his World War I memoir, "A Yankee in the Trenches," published in 1918. Holmes served as a volunteer ambulance driver with the American Ambulance Field Service in France, later transferring to the British Army as a driver for the Royal Army Medical Corps. His book provides a gritty, immediate account of trench warfare, detailing the horrors of battle and the resilience of soldiers. Holmes also wrote for newspapers and magazines, but his literary legacy rests primarily on this single work, which remains a valuable primary source for understanding the American experience in the Great War. His straightforward, unromanticized style influenced later war reporting and memoir writing.