McDougall, of the Highland Light Infantry. Hecky went into a burn for a
swim, and suddenly found the attentions of the Germans were directed to
him. "You know what a fine mark he is with his red head," says the
writer to his correspondent, and so they just hailed bullets at him.
Hecky, however, "dooked and dooked," and emerged from his bath happy but
breathless after his submarine exploit.
But while the men in the trenches applaud all the brilliant exploits of
their fellows, and laugh and jest over the lively escapes of the lucky
ones who, in Atkins's phraseology, "only get their hair parted," there
are other fine deeds done in the quiet corners of hospitals and out of
the glamour of battle that move the strongest to tears. Such is the
incident related by a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and it is
a fitting story with which to close this chapter. One soldier, mortally
wounded, was being attended by the doctor when his eye fell on a dying
comrade. "See to him first, doctor," he said faintly, "that poor bloke's
going home; he'll be home before me."
IX
OFFICERS AND GENTLEMEN
"He died doing his duty like the officer and gentleman he was." Could
any man have a finer epitaph? It is an extract from a letter written by
Private J. Fairclough, Yorkshire Light Infantry, to General A.
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