In Memoriam

In Memoriam (2023) is a historical fiction novel by Alice Winn. The novel tells the story of two young men, Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt, who attend boarding school together in England in 1914. Although unaware of each other’s feelings, the two are in love, having repressed their feelings due to the prominent anti-gay bias within their society. The two enlist to fight in World War I shortly after their 18th birthdays. The novel follows their journeys throughout the war and the complexities of their feelings for each other, exploring themes of Societal Stigma Toward Gay Relationships, The Impact of War, and Personal Desire Versus Societal Expectation. In Memoriam is Winn’s debut novel and won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize and the Waterstones Novel of the Year Award. 

This guide refers to the 2024 hardcover edition published by Alfred A. Knopf.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide discuss anti-gay bias, death by suicide, wartime violence, death, and war trauma.

Plot Summary

Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood are 17-year-old students at Preshute boarding school in England in 1914. The two have secretly loved each other for years, but due to anti-LGBTQ+ bias in English society, they have avoided telling each other, instead having sexual relationships with other boys and ignoring their feelings.

As World War I breaks out, they discuss their conflicting ideas about the war, as Ellwood is excited to fight while Gaunt questions whether the war is justified. However, after facing pressure from his mother and other women in town, Gaunt joins the army on his 18th birthday. He writes letters to Ellwood, who remains at Preshute for a few more months before joining.

After Ellwood joins the war, he finds that Gaunt has changed, as he is more distant and withdrawn. However, the two grow close during their days off in the villages, eventually starting a sexual relationship. While they both harbor romantic feelings for each other, they do not reveal them to each other, instead keeping their relationship only physical.

After several weeks experiencing the ugliness of the war, Ellwood sees his first battle in Ypres. He survives and kisses Gaunt afterward, but they are caught by a commanding officer they knew at Preshute, Burgoyne. Burgoyne treats them with disgust and then convinces the colonel to send Ellwood and Gaunt on a death mission to get a prisoner from the German trenches. Convinced that they both will die, Ellwood confesses his feelings for Gaunt through poetry, making Gaunt realize for the first time how Ellwood truly feels about him. During their mission, Gaunt is shot in the chest and Ellwood is forced to flee, leaving Gaunt in the German trenches.

Over the course of the next year, Ellwood attempts to continue without Gaunt. He is promoted to captain in Gaunt’s place and befriends the other officer, Hayes. He grows reckless in his missions and battles, no longer afraid of dying as he grieves Gaunt.

Meanwhile, Gaunt survives his gunshot and is taken to a German hospital. He spends several weeks healing before being sent to a prisoner camp. There, he joins Pritchard—another Preshute student—and Gideon Devi, a friend from primary school. With the help of other prisoners, they build a tunnel to try to escape. Gaunt struggles with nightmares from the war and his fear for Ellwood’s safety.

As the day of their escape nears, Gaunt starts a sexual relationship with Elisabeth, a secretary who can get the men identification papers. He realizes that he feels no romantic attraction to her, confirming for him that he could never love a woman. After he procures the papers, he is approached by Devi and Pritchard, who reveal to him that they know of his romantic attraction to Ellwood. Initially afraid and ashamed, Gaunt realizes that the two do not judge him for it, instead making jokes and showing how comfortable they are with his sexuality.

Ultimately, the men’s escape plan fails, as the tunnel collapses on Devi and Gaunt is forced to go in and save him. They are put into solitary confinement as punishment, where they form a new plan to escape off the train when they are next transported. This time, they are successful, fleeing into the forest and traveling over 100 miles to the Dutch border. When they are stopped by German soldiers just before the stream separating Germany from the Netherlands, Devi sacrifices himself so that Pritchard and Gaunt can escape. Eventually, they find their way into the Netherlands, where they are taken to a police station. With the help of Mr. Roseveare—the father of a Preshute student—they travel to the British Embassy in Amsterdam and, finally, back to England.

While Gaunt and Pritchard are in Amsterdam, Ellwood prepares for the Battle of the Somme. He finds Mr. Roseveare’s son, who is in another battalion, and the two enter No Man’s Land in an effort to push into the German trenches. Thousands of Allied soldiers are immediately killed, unable to traverse the gap between the trenches. Ellwood and Roseveare fight for as long as they can before Roseveare is forced to retreat to the Allied trenches with an injury. Ellwood continues, repeatedly going out into No Man’s Land and dragging injured soldiers back to safety. Eventually, he is stopped by a doctor, who insists that he is too injured to continue.

Ellwood spends the next several weeks healing in a hospital. He has lost one eye and half of his face and receives a medal for his actions in the battle. While healing, he grows bitter and angry, taking his anger out on Gaunt’s sister, Maud, who visits him, as well as the nurses. He longs to be back at the front, but the doctors insist that he is too unwell to return.

One afternoon, he wakes up to find Gaunt by his hospital bed. Assuming that he is a ghost, he calls for the nurse, but she insists that Gaunt is real. Ellwood stares up at Gaunt, overwhelmed by feelings since he had assumed that Gaunt was dead. The two grapple with their feelings for each other, as Gaunt realizes how much hate and anger Ellwood holds. However, he agrees to go home with Ellwood when he is released.

At his own home, Gaunt talks with Maud. She reveals to him that she knows about Gaunt and Ellwood’s love for each other and adamantly supports them. They also discuss how broken their parents are, with his mother constantly drinking and his father always at work. He promises to help her convince them to allow her to go to school in Berlin.

Gaunt goes home with Ellwood. Over the next few weeks, he struggles to deal with Ellwood’s constantly changing mood. Their physical relationship restarts, with the two spending each night together, but Ellwood is unable to become aroused. Gaunt admits to Ellwood that he loves him, but Ellwood does not respond. One day, at breakfast, Ellwood talks incessantly about the horrors of war, upsetting his mother. When Gaunt demands that he stop, Ellwood angrily leaves and then spends the day at a pub. When he comes home drunk that night, he apologizes to Gaunt and the two have sex, though they do so in silence.

Ellwood and Gaunt take a train to visit their friend Roseveare at Preshute. On the way there, Ellwood is overcome by fear and anxiety, imagining the ways in which the train could crash and kill them. Gaunt comforts him, taking him into his arms despite the fact that they are in public. At Preshute, Roseveare tells them that he has procured a job for them at the embassy in Brazil through his father—implying that they could be together there without judgment.

Realizing how angry he is toward the civilians and the entire country of England, Ellwood decides to go to France and train soldiers. Gaunt, meanwhile, goes elsewhere in England to do the same. As the two part, Gaunt promises to go to Brazil with Ellwood. The two men spend the next two years apart. In 1918, the war ends. Ellwood and Gaunt go to Brazil together. They rekindle their physical relationship, but Ellwood is still distant and angry.

After several months, Ellwood receives a letter saying that his mother has died. He tries to dismiss it but breaks down, with Gaunt comforting him and reassuring him. After that, their relationship improves, with Ellwood’s angry spells becoming much less frequent.

In April 1919, Gaunt receives a letter from Maud telling him about her schooling in Berlin and the work she is doing with a group to abolish laws against LGTBQ+ relationships. Gaunt briefly considers going to Berlin, hoping that there may be a chance for change. However, when Ellwood expresses his desire to stay in Brazil, Gaunt agrees to stay with him. Gaunt tells Ellwood that he loves him, still convinced that Ellwood will never be able to love him back. However, Ellwood quotes William Shakespeare, giving Gaunt hope that their relationship will continue to improve.