7 Comments
Nov 5, 2022Liked by Guy Walters

This was so touching. I think it is hard for later generations to understand what the war meant for the lives of our parents (in my case, grandparents in others). They had so many more profound experiences than we have ever been exposed to. And perhaps in some ways that's better. War is an ugly thing.

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Nov 3, 2022Liked by Guy Walters

A lovely piece. Also very endearing headline in his local paper as if he was the only Brian in the area :-)

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Nov 3, 2022Liked by Guy Walters

Interesting article I enjoyed it. I read something about Monty that might interest you. In the book Long Sunset which is the memoirs of Churchill's last private secretary Anthony Montague Browne, it said that Montgomery was against joining the European Common Market. I just tried to find it in the book now but couldn't as it's not in the index, but I know I read it in there! Montgomery was against joining on the basis that he thought we should trade with the Commonwealth instead

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Nov 2, 2022Liked by Guy Walters

Ah, so this is why you went to Paris!

So many layers to unpick here to the questions of "what are we looking at/listening too"? We receive & analyse the "words & deeds" of "great men" differently these days from those of the 1950s. We turn the "undeserving" into celebrities & often vilify those who have some claim to "greatness". The terms have become warped & twisted & today's world can be a topsy-turvy place.

Montgomery was a controversial figure both in his lifetime & beyond, but for the rank & file under his command at least, he was an icon. My father's remembrances of him testify to that. For a man who served him so closely as Mr. Hewlett, that iconic status would have been magnified. And Monty did, in so many instances, "get the job done". Surely we didn't then, and shouldn't now, appoint the nation's Field Marshalls for their ability to charm over cocktails and canapés!

Any historian worthy of the name knows a personal memoir is full of subjectivity. It's just the way things are. But with careful analysis, such testimony as Mr. Hewett's can bring out a deeper charm hiding within an irascible character. For the postmodernists among us, it turns the kaleidoscope & changes the image.

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Nov 2, 2022Liked by Guy Walters

Interesting. I think one should take into account some recent discussion of veteran accounts and memories and the veracity and reliability thereof. Nevertheless a remarkable experience. Certainly more noteworthy than my father’s stories of national service, some of which I’m beginning to doubt.

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Nov 2, 2022Liked by Guy Walters

I’m not sure if this degree of hero worship after work long is admirable or somewhat sad.

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