Monthly Archives: July 2013

Arts, History, Philosophy, United States

Reflections… Henry Ward Beecher

Words attributed to Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, American Clergyman.

Words attributed to Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887, American Clergyman.

ABOUT BEECHER

HENRY WARD BEECHER was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery and his emphasis on God’s love.

He was the son of Lyman Beecher, a Calvinist minister who became one of the best-known evangelists of his age. Several of his brothers and sisters became well-known educators and activists, most notably Harriet Beecher Stowe, who achieved worldwide fame with her abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Henry Ward Beecher graduated from Amherst College in 1834 and Lane Theological Seminary in 1837 before serving as a minister in Lawrenceburg, Indiana and Indianapolis.

In 1847, Beecher became the first pastor of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York. He soon acquired fame on the lecture circuit for his novel oratorical style, in which he employed humour, dialect, and slang. Over the course of his ministry, Beecher developed a theology emphasising God’s love above all else, a contradiction of his father’s stern Calvinism. He also grew interested in social reform, particularly the abolitionist movement.

After the American civil war, Beecher supported social reform causes such as women’s suffrage and temperance. He also championed Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, stating that it was not incompatible with Christian beliefs.

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Arts, Drama

Lateral thinking drama puzzle: ‘Bridging the Gap’

SETTING & SCENARIO

SCOTT MERCY was a major in the Sherwood Rangers Regiment of the British Army, which had been chosen to do a tour of duty in Bosnia, under the overall control of the United Nations. His duties in Bosnia included the supervision of food distribution, the protection of the local civilian population and all administrative and communicative installations, that is, airports, roads, bridges, telegram offices, etc.

…’BRIDGING THE GAP’ under Major Mercy

ON the first day of his new assignment, Major Mercy chose four men from the platoon to form a small mobile unit to serve as scouts. Whenever Mercy received a transmission that a hospital had been bombed, or that a bridge or road was down, he sent these four men ahead to assess the situation. When he heard that a bridge on the road from Plehan to Sarajevo had been hit, he sent his scouts out immediately to lay new cables to rebuild the bridge. It was imperative that the bridge be fixed because the road served as a main artery, along which the UN was scheduled, in 24-hours, to deliver emergency medical supplies to the devastated city of Sarajevo.

That evening Mercy received a transmission from the mobile unit. It was Private Kenning on the radio and the line was bad.

“Sir”, he said. “It’s worse than we anticipated. The river is swollen because of the rain. It’s thick with mud and there’s no way we can get across. The banks are crumbling and won’t support the weight of our vehicles. We can’t get close enough to lay the cables. Over.”

“How bad’s the bridge?” the major asked. “Over.”

“There’s no sign of the bridge. The river swallowed it up. Over.”

“Any gunfire?” the major asked. “Over.”

“It’s pretty quiet here, sir. We can see civilians on the other side, but we can’t get to them. Over.”

“Stay put and keep the line open. I’m coming down in the armoured jeep. Out.”

Private Kenning handed the radio back to Private Lister and informed his unit that the major was on his way. They stood around smoking cigarettes and watching the river rush downstream. A young sapling that had been growing along the river bank suddenly became dislodged and sunk into the brown water. It popped to the surface and was carried swiftly along by the current. Private Cross, jokingly referred to by his buddies as Robin Hood, because of his expertise in Archery, shook his head, sat down on a rock in the shelter of a spruce tree, took out his army knife and started to whittle away at a long thin branch. Private Handy also sat down, pulled his blue beret down over his eyes and tried to sleep. Kenning looked up at the bleak sky and listened to the rain fall on the shoulders of his white, army-issue poncho. Night was falling and the cold had begun to seep through to his skin. He shivered.

Back at camp, the major summoned his driver and gave him orders to transport him to the bridge. They climbed into the white, armoured jeep, with the blue UN flag flapping at the end of a long antenna, and started down the rain-soaked road towards the river. When they were still 12-miles from the bridge, the jeep slid sideways in the mud and into a ditch. The major got out and piled rocks in front of the rear tyres to give the vehicle some purchase, but when the driver put the jeep in gear and inched forward, the rocks simply sunk deeper into the mud. The driver tried rocking the jeep back and forth while the major pushed, but for all their efforts, the thing wouldn’t budge.

“Looks like we’re stuck, sir,” the driver said.

“It’s getting dark,” replied the major. “It’ll be curfew time soon and we’ll be cut off. Hand me the radio.”

The major called ahead to the mobile unit and informed private Kenning that he would not be able to reach them in time. “I’m leaving the situation up to you boys. Somehow you’ve got to figure out how to lay the cables across the river by morning. I’ll make sure the rest of the platoon arrives at 08:00 hours. In the meantime, you get those cables across. People’s lives depend on it.”

“Yes, sir,” Kenning said and put the radio down. He told the unit to listen up and informed them of the situation.

“What are we supposed to do?” Lister asked. “Swim across?”

“That would be impossible,” Kenning said.

“What about making a raft?” Handy suggested.

“Nice one,” Kenning said. “But have you happened to notice the current of the water? You’d be swept away in seconds. You’d be in the heart of Sarajevo in five minutes. How would you like that?”

“OK, forget it,” Handy said.

“What about a helicopter?” Lister said. “We could radio the major and request permission.”

Kenning checked his watch and said, “Curfew started five minutes ago. Any helicopter that’s still in the air is fair game. It would get shot down before it even had a chance to get here. That’s not an option.”

The men fell silent, each one racking his brain to find a solution.

“What about you, Cross?” Kenning asked. “You’ve been mighty quiet. We’re trying to help the war effort here. If we don’t get these cables laid by 08:00 hours, there are women and children who aren’t going to get the medical attention they need in time, and will die.”

“Calm down,” Cross said with a wry smile. “I’ve got an idea. You know how to speak the language fluently, don’t you Kenning?”

“That’s right,” Kenning answered.

“You still carrying that megaphone around, Lister?”

“I sure am. It’s in the jeep.”

“Good. Now can you shine the headlights in the direction of those civilians on the other side?”

“No problem.”

“What’s this all about?” asked Kenning.

“Let me explain…”

By 08:00 hours the following morning, the rain had stopped, the cables were laid, and major Mercy’s platoon was able to build the new bridge.

What was the idea which Private Cross had and how were the four scouts able to lay the cables across the river before the 08:00 deadline?

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Arts, Books, Britain, First World War, History, Military

Book Review: ‘Die Hard, Aby!’…

DIE HARD, ABY!

… For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe (William Shakespeare)

RECENT BOOKS, many by Pen and Sword such as Shot at Dawn, have highlighted the often shocking cases of young British soldiers in the Great War being executed by their own side. All too frequently their trials were cursory, the evidence flimsy and the defence wholly inadequate. Such scandals has appalled right-minded people of all political persuasions, not least as there is strong evidence that the authorities turned a blind-eye to under-age boys serving illegally on the Western Front.

Die Hard, Aby! is a book that examines in depth the shocking case of a Jewish boy, Abraham Bevistein who enlisted in the Middlesex Regiment at the age of seventeen. By all accounts an exemplary young soldier, Aby was wounded in action and hospitalised.

After what was probably a premature release, his battalion suffered a major bombardment and Aby reported sick. Declared fit for duty, he then made the fatal mistake of not returning immediately to the front-line. The authorities arrested and tried him. The conduct of that trial is examined in close detail and clearly flouts every convention of natural justice.

His execution by firing squad caused horror and utter disbelief to his family and those who knew him and readers who engage this masterly written book will, equally, feel outraged. Aby’s case featured, too, as a major part of the Channel 4 drama documentary Boy Soldiers of the First World War.

This superbly researched and, for many, highly emotive account of a specific case of grave injustice will likely fuel yet further the controversy over such executions. Die Hard, Aby! is sure to appeal to all who feel any sentiment for their fellow humans.

At the end of the book it will be for the reader to decide whether Abraham Bevistein has been afforded fair justice from the country for which he died – even after all these years.

FAIR JUSTICE?

Soldiers who were shot during the Great War have, at times, become an emotive and recurring, national argument and topic. As David Lister, the author of this compelling work ‘Die Hard, Aby!’ writes:

… It is a recurring, national itch that requires scratching at regular intervals.

There is possibly a nagging feeling by some that justice has not been done; others may just wish the subject would fade away, and pretty much feel that justice was done in the first place.

There are several books that address the issue but, even before the first of them had been conceived, interest on the subject has bubbled away under the surface from a time well before the cessation of hostilities in 1919.

The Thin Yellow Line was published in 1974. Its author, William Moore, drawing on questions raised in Hansard (House of Commons), had to make a good as a job of it as possible without recourse to official court-martial papers. Those had been closed to the public: marked ‘not for release’ until the expiration of 100-years.

A decade later, Anthony Babington’s For The Sake of Example was the first book published by an author who had been allowed to see the papers, still not yet, though, within the public domain.

75-years after the executions, the government relenting to public pressure, the war office documents were released earlier than first intended, enabling more research. At the time of the release, another publication Shot at Dawn (Julian Putkowski/Julian Sykes) had been made. This was the first book to report in detail of individual cases, as well as the first to record the names of those executed within the main-body of the text (as opposed to within a table or index).

All of these books lean towards the injustice of the situation, with the latter making a strong case for the ‘pardoning‘ of all those executed for military disciplinary offences, such as desertion or sleeping at post. Recently, though, works by Cathryn Corns and John Hughes-Wilson, produced there well-researched (but unsympathetic) publication entitled Blindfold and Alone. Here, the authors take the general stance that the executions were, for the most part, necessary and properly carried out.

For God’s Sake Shoot Straight (recently published as ‘Death for Desertion’) by Leonard Sellers tells the true story of Sub Lieutenant Edwin Dyett, one of only two officers shot for military offences during the First World War.

Die Hard, Aby! follows a logical sequence of events that trails in the wake of publications previously made available. Whilst Moore brought the issue of executions into the wider public domain and Babington examined the case in more depth, Die Hard, Aby! similarly seeks to examine the story of the enlisted men and in particular Abraham Bevistein, who like an estimated 15% of all fighting ‘men’, had signed-up as a soldier, under-age.

Lister sets out to tell the whole-story of Abraham Bevistein: where he was born, where he grew up and what, chain of events brought him to his fate. Abraham was a very ordinary boy amongst the hundreds of thousands of ordinary boys and men who died in the trenches and whose lives have not even left a footnote on the pages of history, other than a name merely scribed on a stone or a memorial panel.

Abraham has been recorded and mentioned in Hansard on occasions, now, spanning in excess of 75-years. His story exemplifies an injustice that has been allowed to endure for far too long.

David Lister’s book considers not that of the 306 men executed for military offences; but of one boy who suffered that end, Abraham Bevistein, who served under the name of “Harris” and whose gravestone even bears the name spelt incorrectly as ‘Beverstein’.

Much of Lister’s work speaks of Abraham’s times and the setting for his life. The writer acknowledges that with the passage of years, there is little to be found in records and archives of the life of one boy who grew-up in a poor part of London.

Abraham is followed from the Russian annexed land of his birth, across Europe and the North Sea and into a new land for which he chose to fight, and for which he ultimately died. A little is learnt of his school life, the regiment he joined and of the events that brought him to his untimely death.

The premise of Die hard, Aby! is a sad-case of an executed boy – taken up in Parliament – based on how letters from the front, scribbled on scraps of paper, were brought to the attention of the nation.

In a carefully choreographed story, based on real-life events, David Lister exposes brilliantly the injustice of Abraham’s untimely death by execution.

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