se such an episode
forms the subject for an interesting study in the bearing of two
remarkable personalities, and because I hold that the truth should
always be told about such matters. The episode has long been a topic of
intimate conversation amongst members of the 2/5th Lancashire Fusiliers
and their friends; many a laugh have we had about it. Why should not
the public be allowed to laugh with us?

All men and women, even the greatest, are capable of making mistakes.
Nobody is perfect. Even the great Napoleon made mistakes. So General
Stockwell will not, I am sure, claim to be immaculate. But for Clifton
Inglis Stockwell as a General I entertain, and always have entertained,
feelings of the most profound respect. Nobody can possibly entertain a
more ardent devotion for a leader than I entertain for General Stockwell
under whom it has been my good fortune to have the honour to serve in
1917, in 1918, and in 1919. The longer I have served under him the more
have I admired his perfectly obvious talent, his brilliant initiative,
and his striking personality. His record in the Great War is unique. As
a captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, he commanded a company in the
retreat from Mons in 1914. He rose rapidly. He became a major; and he
became a colonel; and, during the Battle of the Somme, in 1916, he
became a Brigadier-General, succeeding Brigadier-General Edwards in
command of the 164th Brigade. And he remained in command of that famous
Brigade until the end of the war. As I studied the countenance of
General Stockwell on that country road at Boisdinghem that afternoon I
realized that he was no ordinary twopenny-halfpenny brigadier; but I
did not then know that this was the man who, less than twelve months
later, was destined to stand between Ludendorff and decisive victory in
his last dramatic throw at Givenchy on the glorious ninth of April, and
seven months later still to be chosen to command the flying column known
by his name which captured Ath on Armistice Day and fired the last shots
of the Great War. It is right that Stockwell's place in history should
be duly appreciated.

CHAPTER VI

THE GENERAL'S SPEECH

This chapter will be a very short one; but, despite its brevity, it
seems to me that the event narrated in it should form the subject of a
single chapter. General Stockwell's speech at Westbecourt, on Waterloo
day, 1917, was a very remarkable speech; it was the most striking speech
I have ever