Tommy by Richard Holmes

Author:Richard Holmes [Holmes, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, General, Europe, Great Britain
ISBN: 9780007383481
Google: vK6OIWu1kH0C
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Published: 2011-12-20T13:00:00+00:00

This quotation tells us much, and not just about trench-digging. Harry Ogle, an educated man who had joined up as a private, was now a corporal, and would end the war as a temporary captain with a Military Cross. Tom was properly respectful to an NCO, although ‘Corp’ soon became ‘lad’. He was proud of his skills, twice referring to the link between hard work and manliness which was such a striking feature of the Edwardian working man, be he urban or rural. The chance of a middle-class man like Ogle living in close proximity to a miner in peacetime was remote. He might have once judged Tom as a potential striker, while Tom might easily have seen him as a toff with more money than sense. Thousands of young men like Harry Ogle were broadened by the experience of serving with soldiers from working-class backgrounds, and many never forgot it. We must also forgive men like Harry Ogle their attempts to catch regional accents in their prose: they no more meant offence than James Dunn meant to mock the brave Private Edge’s speech impediment. And while Tom and his ilk rarely sought to capture middle-class accents in their own accounts, they were often apt at imitating them. The practice was called ‘talking Rupert’, and the young Second Lieutenant P. J. Campbell, in charge of his first working party, was amazed just how well they did it.

The inexperienced Second Lieutenant Campbell took over a gunner working party at Potijze in the salient from an officer who warned him: ‘Whatever you do, don’t bugger the men about, that’s the only unforgivable thing. That, and having unnecessary casualties.’ He was astonished by the skill of the men, and by the freedom of their conversation as they grumbled and mimicked officers, though in a good-humoured way, and paid no attention to his presence.

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