Had it not been for this officer’s gallant and determined action it is doubtful if the left of the brigade would have reached its objectives.  Later in the day, when our position was threatened, he collected his battalion headquarters, led them to the attack, and beat off the advancing enemy.  This gallant officer has since died of wounds.”

And some time afterwards I noticed, in an illustrated paper, a little photo entitled “Daddy’s V.C.”  It was the picture of a little baby being held in his mother’s arms at Buckingham Palace, while His Majesty King George the Fifth pinned upon his frock the Victoria Cross.

[Illustration:  Map of FREZENBERG]

FOOTNOTES: 

[11] This refers to the officers’ quarters.  Company Headquarters were stationed in the cellar mentioned in the previous chapter.

[12] See Appendix V.

[13] He did not get as far as Aviatik Farm.  We met again at Scarborough in October, and he told me that he was wounded about the same time that I was wounded.

[14] Sergeant Brogden was afterwards killed in action at the Battle of Menin Road, September 20, 1917.

[15] Manchester Guardian, August 4th, 1917.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I.

MURRAY AND ALLENBY

In view of my comments upon the appointment of Sir Edmund Allenby to succeed Sir Archibald Murray, the following extract from the Manchester Guardian of September 17, 1919, is of interest: 

The Victor and His Predecessor.

When Field-Marshal Allenby stepped off the train at Victoria to-day one of the first men whom he greeted was General Sir Archibald Murray, his predecessor in the East.  The meeting must have been a pregnant one to them both.  Sir Edmund Allenby came home victor of our most successful campaign in the war to receive a peerage, while inside and outside the station London was roaring its welcome.  General Murray, after the failure of the battle of Gaza, had been transferred home and had been received there with the severest criticism and some personal attacks.  The War Office is famous for its short ways when it does make up its mind to do something disagreeable, and its treatment of Sir Archibald Murray is said to have lacked nothing in discourtesy.  Since then a good deal has come out about the early part of our war in the East and the work done by General Murray, and the nearness he got to success with quite inadequate support had become recognized even before Sir Edmund Allenby’s dispatch was published, which officially re-established his military reputation.

To-day, at Dover, Sir Edmund Allenby spoke even more clearly of the debt he owed for the foundations laid by General Murray and for the loyal way in which he started him off as a beginner.  It is not too common in our military history to find great commanders on the same battle-ground as sensitive about one another’s reputation as they are of their own.  It is so easy to say nothing and leave matters to history.  The lustre of Allenby’s achievement is even greater for his acknowledgment of his debt to his predecessor.