Siegfried Sassoon, born to a Jewish Iraqi father and English mother in 1886, was the second of three sons. He ultimately attended Clare College in Cambridge where he studied law and history; however, he dropped out.
Despite his first name, Siegfried Sassoon had no German ancestry. His mother was said to be large fan of the operas of Wagner, prompting her to name him after the composer.
Sassoon joined the British Army on the eve of World War I. He was prompted by the nationwide fervor of patriotism. During the war, he fought at the Western Front and even single-handedly captured a German trench.
Both before and after the war, Sassoon wrote a number of poems and memoirs. His most successful was "Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man," the first in a trilogy of stories about his life.
Pat Barker wrote a fictional account of Sassoon's military career and a mental breakdown named "Regeneration." It was eventually made into a movie starring James Wilby and Jonathan Pryce.