Novel of considerable scale

A Soldier’s Wife is a study of two decades in the life of Ellen Ainsworth. We meet her first in her family’s lodge kitchen in the summer of 1901, pouring tea for her visiting cousin, Jack, and his British Army comrade, a handsome Dublin sergeant named James Devereux. The eldest of four daughters, with “a reputation for being very ladylike and dainty”, she lives with her parents and sisters on an estate in Castlebar, and works as governess to the children of Lord and Lady Lucan. Though still only 20 years old, the possibilities of romance seem to have passed her by, so it is only natural that the soldier should catch her eye. And the attraction is clearly mutual, though time is not on their side. James, ten years her senior, is a year from an overseas posting, a return to India.

From here, they embark on a whirlwind courtship. Ellen’s mother has some reluctance, knowing that life as the wife of a soldier will be difficult, but no one stands in the way of love. The couple marry, and settle into barracks accommodation. By the time they are ready to set sail for India, on a seven-year posting, they have already extended their family by one, a beautiful daughter, Nancy. But the voyage brings tragedy when the infant succumbs to an outbreak of measles that has become rampant among the ship’s children, and has to be buried at sea.