Richard Wilson
The Post of Honour
Stories of Daring Deeds Done by Men of the British Empire in the Great War
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4057664575265
Table of Contents
CAPTAIN GRENFELL AND THE CHARGE OF THE LANCERS
BRITISH SAILORS WHO KNEW HOW TO DIE
THE SPIRIT OF SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
LIEUTENANT LEACH AND SERGEANT HOGAN
WILSON, O’LEARY, AND MARTIN-LEAKE
COMMANDER UNWIN AND THE TWO MIDSHIPMEN
SMITH AND FORSHAW: TWO HEROES OF GALLIPOLI
JACK CORNWELL, THE BOY WHO “CARRIED ON”
HOW MOORHOUSE BROUGHT IN HIS REPORT
LIEUTENANT ROBINSON AND THE ZEPPELIN
MIDSHIPMAN GYLES AND THE GERMAN BOARDERS
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The author has used a large number of sources—newspapers, official reports, private letters and diaries, as well as books—in gathering the facts for these simple stories. Acknowledgments have been made wherever it was possible to trace the source, and indulgence is asked if through inadvertence or inability to find the original report any requisite acknowledgment has been omitted. Very meagre particulars of most of these brave deeds are at present available, for the British V.C. does not talk of his exploits. But such facts as are actually known ought surely to be given the widest possible publicity, especially in the schools of the Empire.
“If I should die, think only this of me,
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.”
Rupert Brooke.
“Will you at least try, if I am killed, not to let the things I have loved cause you pain, but rather to get increased enjoyment from the Sussex Downs, or from Janie singing folk-songs, because I have found such joy in them, and in that way the joy I have found can continue to live.”
Letter to his Mother, from a young British
officer who was killed in action.
“O ye who fell, mistake not our warm tears,
We would not wish you back lest we should see
Your souls defiled by undistinguished years.”
Charles Vincent.
INTRODUCTION