THE “MAD MAJOR”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 272, 7 February 1928, Page 13

THE “MAD MAJOR”

DID HE REALLY EXIST? RELIC OF WAR STORIES Was there a “mad major” during the war. If so, who was he? Most serving soldiers and many exsoldiers know the story, writes Mr. Maurice Fagence in “The Daily Mail.” He was supposed to have had a roving commission to do what he liked and to have used every arm of war in turn. He belonged to no particular unit, and yet, at different times, he made use of scores of units. And everything he did bore the stamp of the generalship of a Napoleon, the resource of a Sherlock Holmes, the courage of a Nelson. To-day every soldier knows the story, and an amazing percentage believes in it. And the belief is still growing. I met at Southampton recently the last army transport to 3*rrive from India. The Scots Greys on board believed “the mad major” to have been originally a cavalryman. Artillerymen said he had belonged to the R.H.A. To infantrymen to-day, as when the war ended, he had been a “footslogger.” Tank merchants and air force men all claim him. They, like the men I met from India, tell remarkable stories of his exploits. Most people believe he got special permission to be a free lance of war to enable him to avenge the deaths of his sons —the number of them differs. Most believe that airplanes they saw flying a few feet over the German lines were piloted by him. One man saw him bring down Richtofen. Again, on the Noyon front, he trundled a 13-pounder into No Man’s Land during a morning mist and blew up six German tanks. Often he has taken out a British tank and wrought frightful havoc. AVith rifle and bayonet he has gone out and collected handfuls of prisoners unaided. One of they officers just returned from India told me that the stories had become very general out there. People who saw individual acts of great bravery are more and more crediting them to him. Men who did not serve in the war believe he did such extraordinary things as driving a car along the Arras road into the German lines. . „ This officer thought “the mad major was a composite of Colonel Freyberg, Colonel Lawrence and Air Commodore Samson. it is worth considerinfr*iction does not invest any man with so many thrilling escapades. To all and his exploits are different. No one seems to have seen him. Has he any basis in actuality? _ . , Or is he an even more remarkable figment o£ the imagination than ? the "Russian legions’ of August 1914.