Tributes 



was below ground but close to a cross-roads of dubious reputation 

 since the range was accurately known to the Germans. When I got 

 him there he insisted on standing in the middle of the cross-roads 

 inquiring about points of interest around, while I, with one eye on 

 German shells falling on some ruins further up the road and the other 

 on the entrance to the dressing station, was trying to reply to his 

 questions and at the same time to calculate our chances of reaching 

 safety if the Germans should lift the range of their guns. Perhaps the 

 fact that Barcroft had chosen on this occasion to wear, of all things, a 

 bowler hat may have been our salvation, for the sight of a man standing 

 calmly in a bowler hat at a point where no ordinary mortal would 

 voluntarily linger may temporarily have paralyzed the Germans owing 

 to the uncertainty and consternation created by such an apparition. 



There you have an instance of Barcroft's calmness and my agitation, 

 but my uneasiness was not unnatural for, after all, my orders were to 

 return Barcroft to our headquarters safe and sound. And this leads 

 me to re-echo some words of Sir Henry Dale in which he alluded to 

 Barcroft's imperturbability in adverse or difficult circumstances. When 

 things seemed likely to go amiss and others might well have been 

 daunted, or when tempers were getting frayed, he merely tackled the 

 difficulties and set them straight with calmness and a good humour 

 which never failed him. Speaking for myself, I can only say this : that 

 to have known Barcroft, to have worked with him, and above all to 

 have been numbered among his friends, are privileges which I count 

 very high indeed. 



Professor A. V. Hill 



We have had such admirable accounts of J. B.'s scientific activities 

 that it will probably be best if I refer shortly to the more informal, 

 familiar and intimate aspects of the friendship which existed between 

 all of us and him. Some of my remarks might appear almost impudent 

 — but Lady Barcroft has given me carte blanche to say what I like. 



J. B. belonged to a unique class, a class which contains, far more 

 than in proportion to its numbers, so many of the best of human kind. 

 I refer to Irishmen educated in England. To this was added a deep 

 affection for the sea, for sea-faring and adventurous folk, and we have 

 heard from Douglas of that adventurousness which was natural to J. B. 



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