176 sportsmen Parsons in Peace and War 



the boy has lived I don't know. The doctor said he was 

 wounded in at least fifty places, most of course small, but some 

 quite big. The lad hung on to my hand and he just moaned 

 now and then, but it must have hurt him very much. I should 

 have been glad to cry for him. . . . The boy Crutchfield is better. 

 Yesterday I promised he should have an apple, and sent down 

 to the store for it. When I got in this morning I found he had 

 never received it, as the supply was run out. He quietly 

 insisted that I should fulfil my contract, much to the amusement 

 of the other boys in the ward. I had to tramp into Staples 

 myself to get it, as the men are not allowed in the town owing to 

 an epidemic of measles. 



" We had another convoy in last night. All our Tommies 

 speak in a very kindly way of the Saxons. We have a wonder- 

 ful man among our patients, a Corporal in R.F.A. — name Gore 

 Brown ; his mother is a Russian Princess. He speaks in twenty- 

 three different languages and writes fourteen of them. He has 

 fought in every war of modern times — was a Major in the 

 Japanese Army. Until he became a private in the British 

 Army he was Commander-in-Chief of Madero's forces in Mexico. 

 He was at Eton, and has a wonderful gift of speaking. 



" In the field ambulance last night I saw men suffering from 

 shell-shock ; they were quite unconscious, but I was told they 

 would recover. They belonged to a battery that had been 

 heavily shelled all day. One hundred and eighty shells had 

 been thrown at it, but they did not have a single casualty." 



September 1.—" It is a horrible day, blowing and rainy, 

 but not enough rain to stop the sand flying, and my eyes, 

 nose and mouth are clogged with it. They say the sand is 

 encroaching terribly in this country, and I certainly believe that 

 if the hospital were left alone for a year it would disappear 

 under the sand. 



" The nurse asked me to go round while Crutchfield was 

 having his wounds dressed this morning. The boy insisted on 

 my making a minute examination of each wound and reporting 

 on it. They are awful, but I really think they do look better. 

 There is still a chance he may have to lose his arm, and I doubt 

 if he could stand that. 



" The dear old Colonel has just been in to help me finish the 



