Medicine, Military; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives, Canadian
Capt. Gammil was a handsome, dashing
chap whose love of fine clothes, bright colors,
silk pajamas--which he wore even in the lines,
while the rest of us slept in our uniforms,
according to orders--and immaculate cleanliness,
gained for him the sobriquet, Beau
Brummel. His farcical gayety was continuous,
and rarely did he appear serious, even
though a serious mien would have been more
appropriate. His extremes of style made him
a daily cause of humorous remarks on the
part of his comrades; and yet his courage was
unquestioned. I have seen him coolly walking
along, daintily smoking his special brand of
cigarette, apparently as much at ease as if he
were in his own smoking room, with the shells
at the same time bursting all about him. Good
stories were told of his careless fearlessness at
the Somme and elsewhere, as he carried out his
duties in tight corners with the _sang-froid_ of
a veteran. Here was a fellow one would take
to be the lightest of the light, a poseur, a
farceur, a dandy of the ladies, who could be as
gay and light in danger as in London. He is
the type of chap who was, no doubt, "a sissy"
in the opinion of his fellow-schoolboys, but is
in reality of the stuff that men are made.
Major Billbower, an English bank-clerk
who had lived some years in Canada, was
rather the reverse of the above. He took life
more seriously, and hardly a day went by that
he did not put into the orderly room a
complaint, great or small, until he got the name,
"the grouser." Usually his complaints were
on behalf of his men whom he seemed to think
were always getting discriminated against by
someone. Because he was of the rather
extreme, unmixable, aristocratic type his men
respected him rather than loved him (though he
was a very likable chap to those who really
knew him) but they would unhesitatingly
follow him through hell-fire, for in danger his
handsomely-chiseled features wore a scornful
smile as he strode along, gayly swinging his
cane, with the same air that he had worn in
more peaceful days in Hyde Park. He had
been decorated for conspicuous bravery, and
well deserved it. On one occasion a large
caliber dud shell struck in the doorway of a
superficial dugout in which he was writing, and
rolled to his feet. Without more than a glance
at it, he coolly pushed it to one side with his
foot, and continued writing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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