TOPIC:

Not sure where one begins on this one ..




An Anglo-Boer war veteran - Adrian Carton de Wiart (article from BBC)

Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was a one-eyed, one-handed war hero who fought in three major conflicts across six decades, surviving plane crashes and PoW camps. His story is like something out of a Boy's Own comic.
Carton de Wiart served in the Boer War, World War One and World War Two. In the process he was shot in the face, losing his left eye, and was also shot through the skull, hip, leg, ankle and ear.
In WW1 he was severely wounded on eight occasions and mentioned in despatches six times.
Having previously lost an eye and a hand in battle, Carton de Wiart, as commanding officer, was seen by his men pulling the pins of grenades out with his teeth and hurling them with his one good arm during the Battle of the Somme, winning the Victoria Cross.
WW1 historian Dr Timothy Bowman believes Carton de Wiart's example helps debunk some myths.
"His story serves to remind us that not all British generals of WW1 were 'Chateau Generals' as portrayed in Blackadder. He exhibited heroism of the highest order.
"Evelyn Waugh supposedly used Carton de Wiart as the model for his fire-eating fictional creation, Brigadier Ritchie Hook, but Waugh's fictional creation experienced considerably fewer adventures than his real life counterpart."
It says much for Carton de Wiart's character that despite being one of the most battle-scarred soldiers in the history of the British Army, he wrote in his autobiography: "Frankly, I had enjoyed the war."
He was born into an aristocratic family in Brussels on 5 May 1880. In 1891 he was sent to boarding school in England, going on to study law at Oxford.
In 1899 he saw the opportunity to experience his first taste of war. Abandoning his studies, he left for South Africa to serve as a trooper in the British Army during the second Boer War. As he was under military age, wasn't a British subject and didn't have his father's consent, he pretended to be 25 and signed up under a pseudonym.
Carton de Wiart (far right) with Winston Churchill in 1943
It was a baptism of fire which ended with him receiving bullet wounds to the stomach and groin, necessitating a return to England. Although eager to get back in the mix again, he had to wait more than a decade to experience further front-line action.
At the outbreak of WW1 in November 1914, Carton de Wiart, now naturalised as a British subject, was serving with the Somaliland Camel Corps, fighting the forces of the Dervish state.
During an attack on an enemy stronghold, he was shot in the arm and in the face, losing his left eye and part of his ear. He received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his exploits.
Speaking in 1964 Lord Ismay, who served alongside Carton de Wiart in Somaliland, described the incident:
"He didn't check his stride but I think the bullet stung him up as his language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye, but we had to keep him with us. He must have been in agony."
Lord Ismay also gave an insight into Carton de Wiart's innate love of fighting:
"I honestly believe that he regarded the loss of an eye as a blessing as it allowed him to get out of Somaliland to Europe where he thought the real action was."
He returned to England to recover in a nursing home in Park Lane. He was to return to this same place on each subsequent occasion he was injured. This became such a regular occurrence that they kept his own pyjamas ready for his next visit.
While recuperating from these injuries, Carton de Wiart received a glass eye. It caused him such
Such setbacks were not to delay him long. He soon realised his ambition to fight on the Western Front when he was sent to Ypres in May 1915.
During the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans launched an artillery barrage in which Carton de Wiart's left hand was shattered. According to his autobiography, Happy Odyssey, he tore off two fingers when the doctor refused to amputate them. His hand was removed by a surgeon later that year.
The way he overcame injury and disability remains an inspiration, says Colour Sgt Thomas O'Donnell, who served in Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.
"For him to have endured all those injuries and gone through so much rehabilitation in so many conflicts and to never give up is really inspirational, particularly given the inferior medical facilities they had then. I just don't know how he managed it.
"Soldiers like Carton de Wiart are a real example for troops serving today. It's quite sad that having sacrificed so much his story isn't particularly well-known. I think as well as remembering the war dead, it is vital we remember what injured soldiers like him went through in countless conflicts."
O'Donnell knows from first-hand experience what it is like for a soldier to have to battle back from severe injury.
He was wounded in Afghanistan in 2010, when a sniper's bullet hit him just above his left kneecap, smashing the knee in two. He was told he might lose his leg and that his soldiering days were over.
But O'Donnell's desire to walk his daughter down the aisle unaided and to serve with his battalion again saw him defy medical advice and return to front-line action in Afghanistan in September 2012. O'Donnell is self-effacing about his own experience. "I want to make it clear that I went through nothing like as much as he endured. Carton de Wiart is like Robocop."
So if Carton de Wiart was a serving soldier today, would he be allowed to return to the front line having lost an eye and a hand? O'Donnell says he would have to undergo stringent tests and strict rehabilitation before a return to front-line action would be considered.
"The Army have set a series of tests for injured soldiers that impose a required standard we have to meet to be able to do our job. Myself and a friend of mine, who had lost a leg, completed those tests and were able to redeploy to Afghanistan after several years of rehabilitation. The tests included passing an annual shoot and marching a distance with a certain weight. I would like to think that if Carton de Wiart could still do his job, they would let him crack on."
After a period of recovery, Carton de Wiart once more managed to convince a medical board he was fit for battle. In 1916, he took command of the 8th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, and while commanding them at the Somme his legend was cemented.
He electrified his men. The eye patch, empty sleeve and striking moustache, combined with his bravery, made him famous, with men under his command describing his presence as helping to alleviate their fear before going over the top.
During fierce fighting, the battle for the village of La Boiselle swayed back and forth. When three other commanding officers were killed, Carton de Wiart took charge of all units fighting in the village and led from the front, holding off enemy counterattacks.
He received the Victoria Cross, the highest British military award for gallantry, for his actions at La Boiselle. He, however, declined to even mention the medal in his autobiography, later telling a friend that "it had been won by the 8th Glosters, for every man has done as much as I have".

Jon
Thank you for posting this inspirational story. I had read about the man before, but I had not seen a photo of his medals and decorations. That assemblage must be without equal, which is appropriate as they represent a man without equal.
Regards
Brett

Mr Jon, Sir ...

An uncanny almost incredible story - way beyond even the fantasy and imagination of any Boy's Own characterization, confirming the truth of the well-worn cliche that truth is stranger than fiction.

Adrian CdW seems to have been one Belgian harboring a consuming and insatiable appetite for destruction, not deviated by, and impervious to any sense of fear or personal injury - sort of an early version of Arnold S's "Terminator"?

Whether or no considered suitable for combat activities by any army officialdom criteria, Dr Charles McMoran Wilson (himself recipient of the Military Cross for services during the battle of the Somme 1916) hardly would have been likely to consider this veteran soldier sane in any accepted sense of the term.

Certainly an astounding and ponderous display of breast metalwork - he must have presented a staggering spectacle decked with all the relevant finery and paraphenalia!

LOL
amb

An impressive war record, he must have been a scary chap, a "bullet magnet" in today's parlance.

I have read and it is repeated above that he was wounded in the ABW, I have found no record of this in the casualty rolls or the newspapers of the day. He was in the IY as Trooper Carton when wounded, unfortunately his WO128 papers are not on FmP.

Can anyone help confirm his wounding?

Thanks
Meurig

Hi Meurig. Article does say he served in the Anglo Boer war under a pseudonym - hence may not be on any rolls or lists?

Hello Jon

He is in the medal roll as Trpr 13010 A Carton 51st (Paget's Horse) company 19th bn IY.

We know casualty rolls are not 100% accurate, as are reminiscences. I've not seen a quoted primary source for the wounding.

"Worthy of further research".

Regards
Meurig