THE BRITISH WAY

NZ Truth, 6 January 1917, Page 12

THE BRITISH WAY

fACT STRANGER THAN JPON

HOW ELKINGTON REGAINED FAME AND HONOR

A True Story ef the foreign Legionf

And an Englishman's Efforts to Sustain a Sallied Name

. With his arm over the horse's "v neck, the exile who hid returned ;. < to his birthright stood silent a ■while, gazing out over the' land on which his eyes ! never wearied .of resting; the glad, cool, green, : ; dew-freshened earth that was so | sweet and full of peace, after the: scorched arid bloodTStalned plains, • whose sun was as flame and whose breath was as pestilence. . fitting by an opc-u window of the lower hall that ov'erhanfjs the gardens, and looking through- a green vista of trees to where his own sleek cattle were, grazing, he —-.repeated again and again: "The whole thing was my faxilt." The voices of hi 3 children came from . the gardens. He is back again' in , his ofd home. ! ' < .The first paragraph is from the last chapter of one of the most famous of English novels, Oulda's i ;=•- "Under Two Flags." . It pic tuTes Bertie Cecil, the disgraced British guardsman who fought m the Foreign Legion of France m Algeria and retrieved his name under the tri^ color, m his English home m which he - 1 had been reinstated with all his former honors. ' ' It is all pure fiction. ■ 'The second paragraph is from an English newspaper. It pictures Lieu tColonel Elklngton^ of the Royal Warwickshire regiment, who was courtmartielled, and cashiered m September, 1914, who enlisted m the Foreign Legion of France an d under, the ; tri - " color retrieved his name on the battlefield of Champagne m September, 1915, m the home m which, he had been reinstated with all ; his former honors.

It is all pure fact. Bertie Cecil, the hero of "Under Two Flags" of fiction, sacrificed himself to save a brother's honor and a woman's name. Lieut-Colonel Elkington sacrificed himself to save his comrades. Bertie Cecil enlisted as a private m the Foreign Legion of France arid buried his identity m the deserts of Algeria. lileut.-Colonelv.E l.---kingto'n enlisted ,as a private m the Foreign Legion of France and buried his identity m the trenches of the Vosges and Champagne. One woman never lost faith m Bertie Cecil. She became his wife. One .woman never lost faith m Lieut.-Colonel Elkington. She was his wife.

* The Elklngtons, of Pangbourne, have always had a representative in' the British army. By choice they served In the Royal Warwickshires. So, as it had been with his father and'grandfather before him, .when John Ford Elkington took his place in Hhe. mess of, the Warwickshires everything *was as it should- have been. ' His military^ life was on' a peace footing

UNTIL THE BOER WAR CAME to test his fitness. In South Africa he upheld to the full the medal traditions of his family. His bravery m engagements m the Orange River Colony, the Transvaal and the siege of Pretoria won for him the Queen's medal with four clasps and prorpotion. Wh*en the war that still engulfs Europe broke out he was LieutColonel of 'the, Royal Warwickshires and had given his country thirty yeaTS of his life. The Warwickshires were among the first of the British regiments to go to the aid of the hard-pressed French m the early monthß of the war. During the retreat before the stand at, the Marne, Lieutenant- Colonel Elklngton and another officer, with a handful of British troops, were ordered to hold a certain position at all costs. They failed. They retreated and. although what at. the worst was a. tactical error and disobedience of orders, was partly retrieved, a heavy price./ was. paid by tho men who averted the dlsa&ter that threatened. There was no question of Colonel Elklngton's personal courage. He had been 100 merciful. He had- deemed his soldiers too .weary,, too unfit for the duty assigned them. • * i ■'■ ' A . GENERAL COURT -MARTIAL summoned him to account for his failure to carry out the instructions of his commander. He absolved all but himself; took *11 the blame. Pending tho verdict, he, left his regiment and returned to Pangbourne. On October 14. 1914. there camo to him ah offlcial gazette conlulnlng the following: . . , v Royal Warwickshire Tleelment— .

Lieut.-ColonelJohn P. Elklngtbn is cashiered by s' sentence of a general court-martial, September 4, 1.914. ;- ■ With the record of his disgrace m his hands, •, he? looked at two glass cases | which hung on the wall before him. They held the medals awarded to his grandfather and father for valor m England's wars m many climes and on many fields. He had tarnishedthem as well as the names they bore. And he' was fifty years old! What could he do, at this age, to wipe out the past, to restore the 1 lustre to those medals, to take the stain from the name of Elkington? , There came into his mind the romance that had thrilled his boyhood days, "Under Two Flags." There was still the Foreign Legion, still the regiment where no questions .were asked, where black sheep and white weTe equally welcome, so long as they were brave men and would fight for the tricolor. , What an Englishman had^done m the pages of fiction ah Englishman could do m the pages of the war reports of facts. Arid still he would be fighting for his country, for the cause of Britain was . . . , THE CAUSE OF FRANCE. , As a matter of fact, Elkington did again offer his services to his own country. They were Tejected, as he knew they "would be. No .cashiered officer can serve m the army while the sentence stands. There was a quiet talk with his wife one evening after nurse had put the two children m bed. They looked at the medals m the glass cases long without speaking. Then he told her. He was going to seek what he had lost m the Foreign Legion. If he came back he would have it. If he died, it would be .on the Field of Honor, and his children heed not live In shame of his name. Together they bent over' the cribs' m the nursery. A kiss, and he was gone.

. Cashiered men are spoken of, If at all, as dead m English army circles, and Elkington, like Bertie Cecil, ceased to exist m his regiment and his clubs. He -became a private m the Legion, he who had been the medalwearing lieutenant-colonel of the crack Royal Warwickshlres. He drilled and fought with the men of all nations who make up the Legion now m truth, as it did m the fiction of "Under Two Flags." He ate, drank and slept^ m the trenches with men who found; the Legion the only home for a fallen name; with .those who fought with it fOT pure love of fighting; with those who sought m it THE.OBLIVJON OF DEATH. . Elkington. himself thus 'describes his comrades m the, Legion m .words that almost duplicate Ouida's. There m that strange collection .of men there is no rank, no past and noN dishonored name. The Foreign Legion m France ignores the past, regards with contempt ' , the future and laughs at the pre* sent. There every man is a man, , and each a hero. It has a strange atmosphere. They area grim lot of « jolly men; a desperate lot of cool and courageous heroes.

Many there were who had be- • come legionaries because they, too, had : failed elsewhere, 'lost dogs like myself.' I iped to call them. And there are many .other, men among these legionaries with whom I have, served and who were there because there was fighting ,to be done, because fighting is second nature to them, and there aro Also those whoXwere there because there is a cause to fight for. Their officers ar% the nicest, fellows m the world, and they are splendid leaders.

There was no longer a Lieut.-Colonel Elkingtbn, of the Pangbourne Elklngtbns; there was no longer an aristocrat There was just "Elklngton, John

Ford, enlisted volunteer," wearing on his wrist a bangle inscribed with a number, "Seine, 8.C., i 1319. '"

In September, 1915, came Champagne, and the struggle m which

THE -FOREIGN LEGION, already distinguished, for its valor, twica won for its colors the Croix de Guerre. On. the .first' day of the battle Elkington was ,m the : vanguard, which threw himself at the enemy with overwhelming . .

On the fourth day. of <the battle the Legion again swept forward. They took the first German trench with hand grenades arid > bayonets,-, and charged the second under a withering hail from machine guns' and rifle fire. Elkington, the officer having been- killed or disabled, was ■ leading* the onslaught when a shot, splintered brie of his -knees.- , 7 : „ • ■ •: V ■

One of .his comrades was an American surgeon named Wheeler.. These, two ■ had become : pals when their eyes first met m a Lyons hotel. Wheeler, j chtxging beside . Elkington, 'was also shot m the. leg. Although wounded, he gave Elkington's injury first-aid treatment. i

Wheeler had told Elkington that only amputation of his leg* would save his. life, but' the surgeons and nurses m the hospital at Grenoble fought for ten months • to save the leg of the Legionaire. And. they saved it. While he lay there on his cot, cheered by frequent visits from v his wife, thero came a French General who pinned on his brea^t^ the two coveted honors of the French ' army, the Military Medal and the Military Cross, and told him that General Joffre himself had recommended the reward

FOR HIS SPLENDID GALLANTRY,

'. The Foreign Legion had restored to him what he had. lost. . His.body was bent, he was crippled for life, but he

could look his old comrades of the Warwickshlres m the eyes and go back to Pangbourne with his head erect. He had shed the mantle of shame.

So-invalided out of. the Legion, he went back i.o Pangbourne .and put m a glass case beside the medals of his. father and grandfather the military medal and the military cross of the, Foreign Legion of France. And one day there came to him as y he sat beside his wife, looking out on the green fields with a great peace m his heart, an official Gazette. He asked her to read the marked paragraph it contained. It was no shame that his eyes, were wet when she ended, for this is what he heard: ' ';

The King lias been graciously i pleased to approve of s the reinstatement of John Ford Elkington m the rank of lieutenant-colonel with his previous seniority, a consequence of his gallant conduct while . serving- m the ranks .of the Foreign Legion of tho French Army. He is accordingly reappolnted lieutenant-colonel In the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, dated August 22, 1910, and to count Bervlce m that rank toward retirement on retired pay as from February 24, 1914, but without pay. or aUowanc© for the period September 14. 1914, to August 21, 19] ti.