End of an era

Some of you will know I'm a bit obsessive about history, in particular military history, which is considered a bit of an odd thing for a woman to get into. Do I care?? Not really - it fascinates me and that's that.. since when did subjects for study come with a gender-tag anyway? To be honest it was a toss up when I was considering university whether I'd read music, history or politics - naturally for ME there was no contest (if you are a musician there's just no fighting it) but I remember my history and politics tutors both being a bit sad I wasn't going to take THEIR subjects further. As, unusually again, I kept in touch with both of them when I left school and they could see I didn't just drop either topic (as my groaning bookshelves will testify I still read tons of books about both!) I hope they became a bit happier over time that I wasn't just rampaging around on stage and letting what brain I had atrophy in the general atmosphere of musical hedonism. Both of these ladies were superb scholars, wonderful people generally, and I am lucky to have had them in my life - they enriched it immeasurably as only the best teachers really can.

Getting back to the point, people who know me will understand the last couple of weeks have been tinged with a bit of sadness as they have seen the passing of both Henry Allingham and Harry Patch - the last veterans of WWI still living in the UK. It really IS the end of an era, as the only first hand memories we now have of that conflict will be recordings of those involved. In common with a lot of military historians I find the whole period fascinating and, although I am extremely grateful to anybody involved with getting as much on record as possible from both of these veterans it's naturally a sad day when we can no longer refer to the primary source in person. I've been digging out a few books, scanning through the pictures and generally giving myself an excuse to sit with a cup of tea and ignore domestica whilst I answer the siren call from the bookshelves.

The thing which has most struck me about the whole thing really is the motivation for both old soldiers to talk about their experiences. Neither Harry Patch nor Henry Allingham WANTED to remember WWI and their part in it - they felt they HAD A DUTY to talk about what happened to them and try to get people to understand that it should never be allowed to happen again. To my knowledge neither of them gained any benefit from doing so and often it looked as if they put themselves through a lot of mental torture in their attempts to educate us all. Compare that with the 'modern soldier' accounts from the likes of Andy McNab whose sole motivation for talking about his experiences during the first Gulf War, as far as I can see, was purely self-aggrandisement. Oh, and, silly me, the quick buck thereof. What an encapsulation of the change that's happened in our society over the lifetime of Henry Allingham, huh?

Now, for various reasons I am not likely to reach Henry Allingham's tally of 113 years; nor am I sure I'd really WANT to. But it's interesting to see his recipe for doing so is 'cigarettes and whisky and wild, wild women'.... no macrobiotic diets, pilates and clean living there, then. The singing sort of cancels out the cigarettes for me; wild women aren't really my bag even if they were interested in ME so that leaves the whisky...

Henry, God bless you, I'll be raising my glass of Laphroaig to you every time I dip into my collection of WWI books... and if you can see your way to sending some wild, wild MEN my way we'll conduct a little experiment with regard to whether they're an adequate substitute ingredient in your recipe for longevity...