Postscript xv 



A very dear friend of Erasmus, Charles Tennant, who was 

 killed in action only a fortnight later, wrote of him : " There 

 never was, that I ever met, a man so strong and yet so 

 gentle." All who knew him would agree, as they would 

 about another of his qualities, namely, a conscientiousness 

 that was eminently sane and wide-minded, and completely 

 unswerving. No one in the world was more certain to do 

 what he believed to be right. Just before he left England, 

 when his Battalion was under orders for the front, he was 

 summoned to the War Office and offered a Staff appoint- 

 ment at home in connection with munitions of war. This 

 would have given great scope to his capabilities. " It 

 would have been interesting and important work," he 

 wrote, " but of course there are plenty of older men who can 

 do it just as well as I can." He felt that at that moment his 

 place should be with his regiment, and made, in the words 

 of one present at the interview, a " fine appeal ' to be 

 allowed to go with his men. It was granted, and he went 

 gladly and with no looking back. 



It was, I think, more than anything else this intense 

 feeling for duty that made him so deeply respected, and 

 gained for him in Middlesbrough a very particular position 

 and influence. " There was no one else in his surroundings, " 

 writes one of his friends there, " who had the sort of in- 

 fluence he had." I am almost afraid to emphasize this 

 point, lest a wrong impression be given and affection be 

 cast unduly in the shade. He had many devoted friendships, 

 and possessed, as his friend and tutor at Trinity, Dr. Parry, 

 has said, " an unwavering loyalty of affection." Some of 

 his friends of Cambridge days he was only able to see at 

 long intervals, but his feeling for them and theirs for him 

 remained as fresh and warm as ever. He was always simple 

 and natural, and no one could be more wholly delightful 

 and light-hearted than he was when in a holiday mood. He 

 loved the open air and the country, more especially the 

 north country, and Yorkshire best of all. Fishing had been 

 a source of the very keenest pleasure to him ever since he 

 was a boy. Some will have memories of long days of walk- 

 ing in the Lakes ; others of the jolly times of the May week 



