Is your "Best Boy" wearing Khaki? If not don’t YOU THINK he should be?
November 11, 2015 9:11 AM Subscribe
When Britain entered the war in Europe in 1914, it wasn't a sufficiently existential threat for Parliament to authorize a draft, so enlistment in the armed services was still voluntary. To "encourage" enlistment, Vice-Admiral Charles Penrose-Fitzgerald organized a group of women known as the Order of the White Feather. Their task -- to hand a white feather to any military-aged man they saw out of uniform.
Another notable feather recipient was Fenner Brockway (later Baron Brockway), a pacifist and conscientious objector who once said that he had received enough feathers to make a fan. Brockway spent time in the Tower of London for speaking out and publishing pamphlets against the war and conscription. He would later become the first Chairman of War Resisters' International and an advocate for Indian independence.
The brutal, drawn-out war in Europe led Parliament to pass a conscription law in January 1916, obviating the need for shaming men into enlisting. By war's end, approximately a third of the British Army was draftees.
World War I ended 97 years ago today. More than 17 million people were killed.
The idea of a white feather being synonymous with cowardice stretches back to at least the 18th century, supposedly from the sport of cock fighting, with the belief that cockerel’s sporting these white feathers were poor fighters. Whether that’s really how the notion started or not, over time a white feather came to be associated with weakness and cowardice in parts of Britain, notably appearing in the 1902 novel The Four Feathers and the 1907 The White Feather.The idea spread across the nation, and the inevitable mistakes (Seaman George Samson was given a feather on his way to a party celebrating his being awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for military bravery in the United Kingdom) led to the establishment of the King and Country badge for civilians assisting in the war effort and the Silver War Badge for veterans who had been honorably discharged.
Another notable feather recipient was Fenner Brockway (later Baron Brockway), a pacifist and conscientious objector who once said that he had received enough feathers to make a fan. Brockway spent time in the Tower of London for speaking out and publishing pamphlets against the war and conscription. He would later become the first Chairman of War Resisters' International and an advocate for Indian independence.
The brutal, drawn-out war in Europe led Parliament to pass a conscription law in January 1916, obviating the need for shaming men into enlisting. By war's end, approximately a third of the British Army was draftees.
World War I ended 97 years ago today. More than 17 million people were killed.
As you might imagine, soldiers on leave were regularly handed feathers:
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:20 AM on November 11, 2015 [37 favorites]
One such was Private Ernest Atkins who was on leave from the Western Front. He was riding a tram when he was presented with a white feather by a girl sitting behind him. He smacked her across the face with his pay book saying: "Certainly I'll take your feather back to the boys at Passchendaele. I'm in civvies because people think my uniform might be lousy, but if I had it on I wouldn't be half as lousy as you."(via wikipedia)
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:20 AM on November 11, 2015 [37 favorites]
I can't believe anyone ever thinks vigilantism is a good idea.
posted by Mitheral at 9:25 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Mitheral at 9:25 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
I can't believe anyone ever thinks vigilantism is a good idea.
It was more politically palatable than instituting a draft.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:32 AM on November 11, 2015
It was more politically palatable than instituting a draft.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:32 AM on November 11, 2015
people think my uniform might be lousy, but if I had it on I wouldn't be half as lousy as you."
Heh. He's not saying people would look down on his uniform, he's literally talking about lice and calling her disgusting.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:32 AM on November 11, 2015 [33 favorites]
Heh. He's not saying people would look down on his uniform, he's literally talking about lice and calling her disgusting.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:32 AM on November 11, 2015 [33 favorites]
negging for military recruits
posted by indubitable at 9:36 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 9:36 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
He's not saying people would look down on his uniform, he's literally talking about lice
I didn't catch the connection between lousy and lice and assumed there was some sort of backlash against soldiers in uniform in GB at the time that I was unaware of. What you said makes a lot more sense. Thanks!
posted by Ickster at 9:38 AM on November 11, 2015
I didn't catch the connection between lousy and lice and assumed there was some sort of backlash against soldiers in uniform in GB at the time that I was unaware of. What you said makes a lot more sense. Thanks!
posted by Ickster at 9:38 AM on November 11, 2015
How is this not a republican thing these days? Except it would involve race and/or poverty in some way.
Ugh, this had to be one of those things when you're 50 you think back upon your 18-year-old feather-bestowing-self and you have that "ugh, fuck, I am such a piece of shit, I am so sorry" reaction.*
* Some large percentage of middle age can be spent in this activity
posted by maxwelton at 9:47 AM on November 11, 2015 [9 favorites]
Ugh, this had to be one of those things when you're 50 you think back upon your 18-year-old feather-bestowing-self and you have that "ugh, fuck, I am such a piece of shit, I am so sorry" reaction.*
* Some large percentage of middle age can be spent in this activity
posted by maxwelton at 9:47 AM on November 11, 2015 [9 favorites]
So I'm sure the Order of the White Feather also gave generously to charities to support crippled veterans, and the widows and orphans of veterans, right? Right?
posted by rustcrumb at 9:59 AM on November 11, 2015 [10 favorites]
posted by rustcrumb at 9:59 AM on November 11, 2015 [10 favorites]
You can read The Four Feathers by A. E. W. Mason via Project Gutenberg. That book lead to seven different movies over the years (Wikipedia link to the list of movies - don't scroll up if you don't want to read the plot of the story).
You can also read The White Feather by P. G. Wodehouse via Project Gutenberg (via the Wikipedia article on the book).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:23 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
You can also read The White Feather by P. G. Wodehouse via Project Gutenberg (via the Wikipedia article on the book).
posted by filthy light thief at 10:23 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
Disgusting (the order, not the post). My first inclination is that anyone joining this organization should have been required to marry a returning "broken face" soldier (my first inclinations would often make bad policy).
This is all the weirder since hundreds of thousands of British men volunteered upon the outbreak of the war, more in August than were in the army at that time. Not enough for Fitzgerald, I guess.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 10:28 AM on November 11, 2015
This is all the weirder since hundreds of thousands of British men volunteered upon the outbreak of the war, more in August than were in the army at that time. Not enough for Fitzgerald, I guess.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 10:28 AM on November 11, 2015
I'm listening to the BBC Radio drama Homefront at the moment. It's a weekly drama about life in Britain during WW1. Each episode covers events happening on the same day one hundred years ago. It touches on both the white flag movement and the shame that young women were made to feel if their fighting age boyfriends/husbands hadn't signed up. It's excellent.
I think Dan Carlin's Blueprint for Armageddon covered the way that the powers that be had no idea just how many men a war with 1914s modern technology would chew through in so little a time hence the sudden panic to get people to sign up and subsequent draft.
Horrific.
posted by merocet at 10:43 AM on November 11, 2015 [10 favorites]
I think Dan Carlin's Blueprint for Armageddon covered the way that the powers that be had no idea just how many men a war with 1914s modern technology would chew through in so little a time hence the sudden panic to get people to sign up and subsequent draft.
Horrific.
posted by merocet at 10:43 AM on November 11, 2015 [10 favorites]
Currently listening to Blueprint. It's excellent.
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:51 AM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Obscure Reference at 10:51 AM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
Besides the amusing aside that I briefly thought this FPP was asking if you should allow the technical crew on your films to wear chinos to work, I would be surprised if there weren't a lot of repercussions and regrets afterwards -- I remember reading a couple of memoirs by men in various kinds of government service who talked about the strain of being barraged with white feathers and being unable to say "but I'm in Military Intelligence." Homefront (seconding merocet's recommendation if you like slightly soap-opera-ish dramas) has at least one supplot about an enthusiastic white feather distributor who has to rethink the idea when the cost of the war comes home to her.
The horror of WWI arises in no small part from the genuine innocence on almost all levels of the cost of the conflict, mixed with the decision by the governments when the cost became evident to focus on ways to shovel more people into the grinders than to find a way towards peace. I mean, by early 1915 at the latest, Military Leadership has to have been painfully aware at the costs, but, because they and their class weren't going to be required to pay most of them, they just figured "what the hell, let's keep this up for a few more years and see what happens."
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:52 AM on November 11, 2015 [9 favorites]
The horror of WWI arises in no small part from the genuine innocence on almost all levels of the cost of the conflict, mixed with the decision by the governments when the cost became evident to focus on ways to shovel more people into the grinders than to find a way towards peace. I mean, by early 1915 at the latest, Military Leadership has to have been painfully aware at the costs, but, because they and their class weren't going to be required to pay most of them, they just figured "what the hell, let's keep this up for a few more years and see what happens."
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:52 AM on November 11, 2015 [9 favorites]
Taking a white feather vs. becoming another disposable pawn for an upper-class twit in a leftenant's uniform who kept telling his men to go over the top because he hadn't caught up with the reality of machine guns yet. Decisions, decisions.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:59 AM on November 11, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:59 AM on November 11, 2015 [8 favorites]
Thirding Blueprint as really driving home the horrific and useless meat grinder that WWI was. I mean seriously, they were losing more men in battles than they had in previous wars. It's amazing there was anyone so gung ho for round 2 so few years later.
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:09 AM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:09 AM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
Military Leadership has to have been painfully aware at the costs, but, because they and their class weren't going to be required to pay most of them, they just figured "what the hell, let's keep this up for a few more years and see what happens."
Officers had a much higher casualty rate in the trenches than private soldiers, and most of them came from the same class as the top brass. Whole classes from Eton and other public schools were wiped out. Many of the top generals and political leaders lost sons in the trenches, including Asquith. More than 200 Generals were killed, wounded or captured. They and "their class" disproportionately paid the price of the war.
an upper-class twit in a leftenant's uniform who kept telling his men to go over the top because he hadn't caught up with the reality of machine guns yet
That upper-class twit would have led his men from the front towards those machine guns.
posted by sobarel at 11:12 AM on November 11, 2015 [20 favorites]
Officers had a much higher casualty rate in the trenches than private soldiers, and most of them came from the same class as the top brass. Whole classes from Eton and other public schools were wiped out. Many of the top generals and political leaders lost sons in the trenches, including Asquith. More than 200 Generals were killed, wounded or captured. They and "their class" disproportionately paid the price of the war.
an upper-class twit in a leftenant's uniform who kept telling his men to go over the top because he hadn't caught up with the reality of machine guns yet
That upper-class twit would have led his men from the front towards those machine guns.
posted by sobarel at 11:12 AM on November 11, 2015 [20 favorites]
we will kiss you
we will miss you
but we think you ought to go
posted by janey47 at 11:14 AM on November 11, 2015
we will miss you
but we think you ought to go
posted by janey47 at 11:14 AM on November 11, 2015
Taking a white feather vs. becoming another disposable pawn for an upper-class twit in a leftenant's uniform who kept telling his men to go over the top because he hadn't caught up with the reality of machine guns yet. Decisions, decisions.
Those upper class twits in leftenant's uniforms died even more than the everyday enlisted soldier. They led the charges over the top. Lower-level officer casualties were horrific.
posted by Palindromedary at 11:15 AM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
Those upper class twits in leftenant's uniforms died even more than the everyday enlisted soldier. They led the charges over the top. Lower-level officer casualties were horrific.
posted by Palindromedary at 11:15 AM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
Learning that anyone who said, "You're not chicken, are you?" was trying to trick me into doing something contrary to my well being was a hard lesson, but I'd learned it before I was out of third grade. Getting grown-ass men to fall for it requires malfeasance on a societal scale.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:30 AM on November 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:30 AM on November 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
Aside: It's pronounced "leftenant" but spelled lieutenant.
posted by rocket88 at 11:30 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by rocket88 at 11:30 AM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
That upper-class twit would have led his men from the front towards those machine guns.
Those upper class twits in leftenant's uniforms died even more than the everyday enlisted soldier
All of which is true, but none of which really argues against them being twits or makes the bargain on offer any more attractive.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 11:32 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
Those upper class twits in leftenant's uniforms died even more than the everyday enlisted soldier
All of which is true, but none of which really argues against them being twits or makes the bargain on offer any more attractive.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 11:32 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
It's amazing there was anyone so gung ho for round 2 so few years later.
posted by drewbage1847
This is the missing piece that's conveniently ignored when keyboard warriors get snide about Chamberlain and British (and French!) attempts to prevent war in the late 30s.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 11:44 AM on November 11, 2015 [18 favorites]
posted by drewbage1847
This is the missing piece that's conveniently ignored when keyboard warriors get snide about Chamberlain and British (and French!) attempts to prevent war in the late 30s.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 11:44 AM on November 11, 2015 [18 favorites]
Also WW1 Churchill sounds like kind of a jackass (all I know of WW2 Churchill is what you absorb by osmosis growing up around people who watch the History channel).
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 11:51 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 11:51 AM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
The idea still resonated in WWII - from Spike Milligan's autobiography "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall" -
At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked 'This is your enemy'. I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train . . .'
posted by Jakey at 12:13 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
At Victoria station the R.T.O. gave me a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked 'This is your enemy'. I searched every compartment, but he wasn't on the train . . .'
posted by Jakey at 12:13 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
I think it would only be fair that you volunteer as a nurse in France before you hand out any feathers.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:15 PM on November 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:15 PM on November 11, 2015 [6 favorites]
The same sort of thing was encouraged in the U.S. during the Civil War. Young women were encouraged to self-righteously shame young men not in uniform. (I can recall a 19th century newspaper woodcut showing two "effeminate" young men, being looking at scornfully by one or more young women, over the caption, "The Sweet Young Things of Boston", the SWT in question, supposedly being the men.) And the US Civil War actually surpassed the Great War in its meat-grinderiness. Let this white feather business be a warning to us all, right and left, to rein in our political correctness, and call a truce on public shaming.
posted by Modest House at 12:16 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 12:16 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is the missing piece that's conveniently ignored when keyboard warriors get snide about Chamberlain and British (and French!) attempts to prevent war in the late 30s.
Or when people call the French (who lost a greater percentage of their population in both world wars than did the US) "cheese eating surrender monkeys".
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:22 PM on November 11, 2015 [9 favorites]
Or when people call the French (who lost a greater percentage of their population in both world wars than did the US) "cheese eating surrender monkeys".
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:22 PM on November 11, 2015 [9 favorites]
Other than the two things he happened to be mostly right about (Hitler and the prosecution of WWII), Churchill was a huge jackass.
The casualty rates among British and Empire field officers were appalling, which makes the enthusiasm of the general staff to continue the war in the manner that they had even more baffling. Butcher Haig could have stopped the Somme offensive when it was clear that the weather and battlefield conditions were not favorable, but rather than reconsider objectives and modify or reduce the scope of operations, he let it continue for months. And then he did it again a year later, at Passchendaele.
(Of course, this was by no means limited to the British- the French actually mutinied in 1917, contributing to the replacement of General Nivelle by Pétain)
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:28 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
The casualty rates among British and Empire field officers were appalling, which makes the enthusiasm of the general staff to continue the war in the manner that they had even more baffling. Butcher Haig could have stopped the Somme offensive when it was clear that the weather and battlefield conditions were not favorable, but rather than reconsider objectives and modify or reduce the scope of operations, he let it continue for months. And then he did it again a year later, at Passchendaele.
(Of course, this was by no means limited to the British- the French actually mutinied in 1917, contributing to the replacement of General Nivelle by Pétain)
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:28 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
Especially when they played such a large supporting role in the establishment of the USA in the first place.
posted by Mitheral at 12:31 PM on November 11, 2015
posted by Mitheral at 12:31 PM on November 11, 2015
Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen, read by Christopher Eccleston.
posted by mogget at 1:02 PM on November 11, 2015 [11 favorites]
posted by mogget at 1:02 PM on November 11, 2015 [11 favorites]
This thread is fascinating! Speaking of WW1, and getting a worm's eye view of the meat-grinderiness of it all, I highly recommend the Choice of Games app "Somme Trench." (If you're not familiar with Choice of Games, they're interactive fiction. It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure set in World War One.)
I love this game. You can play as a regular private, a sniper, an airplane gunner, or a whole raft of other options. It manages to be both entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking at the same time.
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 1:26 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
I love this game. You can play as a regular private, a sniper, an airplane gunner, or a whole raft of other options. It manages to be both entertaining, educational, and thought-provoking at the same time.
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 1:26 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
And the US Civil War actually surpassed the Great War in its meat-grinderiness.
Not to nitpick, but I thought that this wasn't actually true, because the civil war numbers are inflated because both sides were American?
posted by cacofonie at 1:30 PM on November 11, 2015
Not to nitpick, but I thought that this wasn't actually true, because the civil war numbers are inflated because both sides were American?
posted by cacofonie at 1:30 PM on November 11, 2015
And the US Civil War actually surpassed the Great War in its meat-grinderiness.
Not to nitpick, but I thought that this wasn't actually true, because the civil war numbers are inflated because both sides were American?
Depends on your definitions.
The Civil War had a 20-25 percent overall combatant fatality rate and about a 33 percent casualty rate (~3M combatants; ~625-~750K died (historians disagree on the exact numbers), ~400K wounded/missing), while World War I's rates were around 15 percent fatalities and over 40 percent casualties (~70M combatants, ~10M died, ~30M wounded/missing).
So the Civil War was more deadly, while WWI had more casualties. And of course, that's just on the military side -- civilian casualties of WWI were much higher, because the Civil War was still mostly before the advent of the modern concept of total war.
The idea that Civil War numbers are inflated because both sides were American is when you start talking about what America's deadliest war was -- the treasonous side had much higher casualty numbers, so if you count them as American military, they tilt the numbers up, but if you only count the U.S. side, it's fewer casualties than the U.S. suffered in World War II.
posted by Etrigan at 1:46 PM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
Not to nitpick, but I thought that this wasn't actually true, because the civil war numbers are inflated because both sides were American?
Depends on your definitions.
The Civil War had a 20-25 percent overall combatant fatality rate and about a 33 percent casualty rate (~3M combatants; ~625-~750K died (historians disagree on the exact numbers), ~400K wounded/missing), while World War I's rates were around 15 percent fatalities and over 40 percent casualties (~70M combatants, ~10M died, ~30M wounded/missing).
So the Civil War was more deadly, while WWI had more casualties. And of course, that's just on the military side -- civilian casualties of WWI were much higher, because the Civil War was still mostly before the advent of the modern concept of total war.
The idea that Civil War numbers are inflated because both sides were American is when you start talking about what America's deadliest war was -- the treasonous side had much higher casualty numbers, so if you count them as American military, they tilt the numbers up, but if you only count the U.S. side, it's fewer casualties than the U.S. suffered in World War II.
posted by Etrigan at 1:46 PM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
My (American) grandfather happened to be in Canada before the US got involved and was given one of these. Not sure if it had any effect on his entering the army when America did enter.
As with the American Civil War, the draft was initially not instituted because it simply was not needed. Young men were eager to go. When they lost interest, the government turned to bounties. Then the draft. It was not a universally popular war.
Worth recalling that Wilson ran for president on the line that he kept us out of the war - a good thing for a country for which the US Civil War was still a living memory. A year later, it was War Fever. What had changed? The Lusitania, mostly.
You can rile Americans pretty good with a sucker punch (think Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor, 9/11). How long the country can sustain that outrage once the body bags start coming home, well, that's a question, isn't it?
posted by BWA at 2:14 PM on November 11, 2015
As with the American Civil War, the draft was initially not instituted because it simply was not needed. Young men were eager to go. When they lost interest, the government turned to bounties. Then the draft. It was not a universally popular war.
Worth recalling that Wilson ran for president on the line that he kept us out of the war - a good thing for a country for which the US Civil War was still a living memory. A year later, it was War Fever. What had changed? The Lusitania, mostly.
You can rile Americans pretty good with a sucker punch (think Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor, 9/11). How long the country can sustain that outrage once the body bags start coming home, well, that's a question, isn't it?
posted by BWA at 2:14 PM on November 11, 2015
I find there's a resonance between this and modern scandals over people not wearing poppies or not bowing deep enough (yes, really).
posted by Erberus at 2:20 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by Erberus at 2:20 PM on November 11, 2015 [3 favorites]
On Saturday, I'm willing
If you'll only take the shilling
To make a man of any one of you
posted by litlnemo at 2:55 PM on November 11, 2015
If you'll only take the shilling
To make a man of any one of you
posted by litlnemo at 2:55 PM on November 11, 2015
The white feather makes its appearance in Downton Abbey, as well. William is given one by a local girl (spoiler: he's convinced...not a good decision).
posted by Miss T.Horn at 4:37 PM on November 11, 2015
posted by Miss T.Horn at 4:37 PM on November 11, 2015
The Bevin Boys of World War II were also often challenged by civilians and police alike.
posted by etaoin at 5:39 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by etaoin at 5:39 PM on November 11, 2015 [1 favorite]
The white feathers happened in WWII as well, at least in New Zealand. My uncle got one - he was a conscientious objector due to religion (who then became a priest). Finding the feather in his mailbox seemed to affect him more than his later imprisonment. He didn't mind that the government thought his refusal to fight was wrong, but the idea that his neighbours believed him to be a coward rather than a pacifist really hurt him.
posted by lollusc at 7:39 PM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by lollusc at 7:39 PM on November 11, 2015 [4 favorites]
I wish I could give your uncle a hug, lollusc. People can be such ignorant assholes.
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 10:27 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by suburbanbeatnik at 10:27 PM on November 11, 2015 [2 favorites]
From Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes comes this story about the British classical scholar Heathcote William Garrod:
During World War I, Garrod, already a distinguished scholar, worked at the Ministry of Munitions in London. The practice of handing white feathers to able-bodied men who were not in uniform was in full swing. Garrod was handed one by a woman in a London street with a withering comment: "I am surprised that you are not fighting to defend civilization." Garrod replied, "Madam, I am the civilization they are fighting to defend."
posted by bryon at 10:44 PM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
During World War I, Garrod, already a distinguished scholar, worked at the Ministry of Munitions in London. The practice of handing white feathers to able-bodied men who were not in uniform was in full swing. Garrod was handed one by a woman in a London street with a withering comment: "I am surprised that you are not fighting to defend civilization." Garrod replied, "Madam, I am the civilization they are fighting to defend."
posted by bryon at 10:44 PM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]
…Churchill was a huge jackass.
Possibly, but unlike most politicians he had considerable personal experience of war, both at the beginning of his career when he was a professional soldier, afterwards as a journalist, and finally during the First World War after the debacle of the Dardanelles when he resigned from government, rejoined the army and served in France for several months.
Whatever his faults he did not lack for personal bravery.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 11:23 PM on November 11, 2015
Possibly, but unlike most politicians he had considerable personal experience of war, both at the beginning of his career when he was a professional soldier, afterwards as a journalist, and finally during the First World War after the debacle of the Dardanelles when he resigned from government, rejoined the army and served in France for several months.
Whatever his faults he did not lack for personal bravery.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 11:23 PM on November 11, 2015
The Quakers have been publishing the stories of conscientious objectors: White Feather Diaries.
posted by Ned G at 5:13 AM on November 12, 2015
posted by Ned G at 5:13 AM on November 12, 2015
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posted by Gelatin at 9:18 AM on November 11, 2015 [5 favorites]