Jonmac:
Tell us more about those amazing men. They deserve all praise.
However, I think some of the particulars may be a little hazy. There were
only 628 VCs awarded in WW1 and far fewer --- just 181 --- were awarded in
WW2. Only three men have ever won the VC twice: 2 were surgeons (Arthur
Martin-Leake and Noel Chavasse) and one (Charles Hazlitt Upham) was a
soldier from New Zealand.
- Chavasse won his first VC during the Boer War. He was killed at
Passchendaele during the action that won him his second VC.
- Martin-Leake won the VC and Bar in WW1. He died in England in 1953.
- Upham won his VC and Bar in WW2 and returned to NZ after the war.
The men you met were undoubtedly heroes, but perhaps had not won such
rarified medals.
Best wishes to all.
Dave MacKay
1960 TR3A s/n 68639L
Near Toronto, Canada
>Message: 14
>Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2023 15:15:35 +0000
>From: John Macartney <johnbmacartney@gmx.com>
>To: Jim Henningsen <trguy75@gmail.com>
>Cc: triumphs@autox.team.net
>Subject: Re: [TR] Maybe the last lunch
>Message-ID: <F3A049BE-87D9-4F13-91A7-1BF15EBBA839@gmx.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
>Jim, very many thanks for your kind words. The Sir John Black policy of
recruiting vets affected all services, not just the RAF in isolation. We
have in the UK an organisation called the Corps of Commissionaires. The
Corps is made up of mostly Serjeants, Colour >Sergeants and Sergeants
Major. They provide reception services to large companies as they have
their own uniforms and they?re always incredibly smart. We had these men
at all reception points throughout the company in the UK, and in
accordance with >the John Black directive issued at the beginning of WW2,
if any ex employee was later re-employed through honourable discharge,
their retirement age would be when they wanted to leave and not at age 65.
>We had three Commissionaires in key locations in Coventry and all of them
were in their late seventies. They were always scrupulously polite,
immaculate in their uniforms and charming conversationalists. I used to
talk to all of them as I was able and apart >from the pleasure of having a
chat, it was an opportunity to study their medal ribbons. All three men
had won the Victoria Cross, our highest award for bravery and the man who
worked the Sales Block reception desk had won it twice! But between all of
>them, anyone with the knowledge of medal ribbons could see they proudly
wore the Victoria Cross, the Mons Star, the Distinguished Service Order,
the Gallipoli medal and the Military Cross, plus the various other general
service and victory medals aka >Pipsqueak and Wilfred. All those men had
done WW1 from start to finish in the desert, in Greece, at sea and the
horrors of trench warfare in France and Belgium. They were always very
quiet but never a day passed without a nod of the head,
> a smile or a friendly greeting. The thing I remember about all of them
was that even after a brief conversation on any subject, you parted
company feeling better for having spoken to them. They were true gentlemen
who had somehow survived the >nightmares of close quarter engagement on
many occasions and amazingly had not been sent mad through what they had
seen or done. Those are the people I remember and respect the most.
>
>Jonmac
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