_1st Division, 16th Infantry, Company “I”_
Cited for extraordinary heroism in action south of Soissons, France,
July 18-23, 1918. While attached to a machine-gun company as an
ammunition carrier, he was wounded twice, but continued to carry
ammunition while exposed to heavy shell fire.]
“The infinite variety of classes that make up our present army is
astonishing. I told once of a Gordon Highlander landing in Havre with
a copy of the Hebrew Psalms in the pocket of his khaki apron to read
in the trenches. I saw, among our own Gordons, an Aberdeen divinity
student, as a private reading in the mud the Greek Testament and the
Sixth Book of Homer’s _Iliad_. Anything, from that to the _Daily Mail_,
represents the reading of our men. This variety is also very noticeable
among our officers. We had the lumberman from the vast forests of the
West beside the accountant from San Francisco; the tea-planter from
Bengal; the lawyer from the quiet Fife town beside the Forth; the
artist; the architect; and the journalist. And it was this mixture that
made possible episodes of irresistible comicality.