ronaldcolmans:On this day 100 years ago (31st October 1914) Ronald Colman survived the battle of Mes

ronaldcolmans:On this day 100 years ago (31st October 1914) Ronald Colman survived the battle of Messines. He joined the London Scottish Regiment and was among the first to take part in World War I. He was invalided out the same year due to the shrapnel wounds that left him with a limp (he eventually came up with a new walking style to hide it).“At the Kaiser’s “Halloween party” at Messines in 1914, amid the din of his army’s band, the shellfire, whizbangs, machine-gun bullets, the shouting of Germans and British alike, came an explosion unnoticed by all except Private Colman. Shrapnel ripped through his knee and ankle, throwing him face-first into the beetroot field. Finding himself unable to put any weight upon the mangled leg, he started to crawl back, dragging the broken bones, stumbling over his kilt, and trying not to pass out. During this maneuver, it suddenly occurred to him that should the next bullet or shell be lethal, he would be found dead with his back to the enemy, and at the rate the battle was going, this was more than a strong possibility. He had every intension of maintaining the dignity both of himself and of his country, whether or not he made it to safety. Without further hesitation, he turned onto his back, and pulling with his elbows, then pushing with his good leg, he retreated from the field of battle while facing the German lines.“ - Juliet Benita Colman “Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person”"Then came the War. Suddenly swooped down on us like a martial bird and bore us off. There was no time for goodbyes, either to family or sweethearts, movies and fiction to the contrary. We embarked from Folkstone. I remember sitting in that train with my battalion, on a siding, waiting to go. I could see from my car window the familiar streets I had walked so many times, houses of people I knew. I felt as a dead man might feel, revisiting, himself unseen, old haunts he had known well but which knew him no longer. I knew that I would come back but not as I was then. Because I didn’t come back. I won’t go into the War and all that it did to all of us. We went out. Strangers came back. It was the war that made an actor out of me. When I came back that was all I was good for - acting. I wasn’t my own man anymore.” - Ronald Colman [source] -- source link

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