Then there was something about which I may be wrong, for Harry never
mentioned it, and I am only guessing from my own opinion. In two years
of war he had won no kind of medal or distinction--except a 'mention' in
despatches, which is about as satisfying as a caraway-seed to a starving
man. In Gallipoli he had done things which in France in modern times
would have earned an easy decoration. But they were scarce in those
days; and in France he had done much dogged and difficult work, and a
few very courageous, but in a military sense perfectly useless things,
nothing dramatic, nothing to catch the eye of the Brigade. I don't know
whether he minded much, but I felt it myself very keenly; for I knew
that he had started with ambitions; and here were fellows with not half
his service, or courage, or capacity, just ordinary men with luck,
ablaze with ribbon.... Any one who says he cares nothing about medals is
a hypocrite, though most of us care very little. But if you believe you
have done well, and not only is there nothing to show for it, but
nothing to show that other people believe it ... you can't help caring.
And then, on top of it, when you have a genuine sense of bitter
injustice, when you know that your own most modest estimate of yourself
is exalted compared with the estimate of the man who commands you--you
begin to have black moods....
III
Harry had black moods. All these torments accumulated and broke his
spirit. He lost his keenness, his cheerfulness, and his health. Once a
man starts on that path, his past history finds him out, like an old
wound. Some men take to drink and are disgraced. In Harry's case it was
Gallipoli. No man who had a bad time in that place ever 'got over' it in
body or soul. And when France or some other campaign began to work upon
them, it was seen that there was something missing in their resisting
power; they broke out with old diseases and old fears ... the legacies
of Gallipoli.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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