In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

While Vernon was finishing up his Watch Your Step contract and taking flying lessons, the war was grinding on. Often called the “first twentiethcentury war,” it combined the fresh enthusiastic patriotism of the nineteenth century with the horrible new weapons of the twentieth (Vernon’s beloved planes among them). In 95, German U-boats blockaded Britain; more than half a million Armenians died in a genocide still being argued about today; the Allies suffered horrendous casualties on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey; the first use of poison gas was recorded; the new “tommy gun,” a lightweight machine gun, debuted. The Canadian Air Force Vernon was pinning his hopes on barely existed . Due mostly to government disinterest, Canada did not have an air corps when World War I began: despite the efforts of the country’s aviation pioneers, no money or research was put into flying. In mid-94, when war broke out, the country had to race to catch up. The tiny, understaffed Canadian Aviation Corps was founded, but Vernon decided to join the British Royal Flying Corps, which, with the Royal Naval Air Service, was recruiting and training both Canadians and Americans in Canada. Even when Vernon, pilot’s license in hand, sailed off to war on the Adriatic in mid-February 96, the newspapers kept needling him in evernastier ways. “Gosh, we bet the British army is growing impatient,” wrote the Toledo Blade, waiting for Vernon to “come a-flying over the trenches in his trusty aeroplane and scare the Germans half out of their wits” (which, it might be added, is exactly what he would shortly do). But Vernon was as yet absent from the front lines,“forever missing trains, or having to stop to get manicured, or having to turn back and fetch some toilet article he had omitted from his service kit.” Vernon landed in England around 3:00 A.M.on February 26,96,and got off to a bad start by puzzling customs and immigration: his passport  “WHEN I GET OLD I SHALL BE ABLE TO TELL OUR CHILDREN ALL ABOUT THE GREAT WAR” CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE 149 read “Castle,”his military enlistment papers “Blyth.”“There are a thousand reasons why I couldn’t go back to my old name,” he wrote to Irene, “but I had a great deal of hard work trying to explain it to the officer in charge. He said I should change my name legally by ‘letters patent,’ whatever that means.” Once in London, Vernon registered at the Savoy and raced off to the Gaiety Theatre, where his brother-in-law was performing; Grossmith, well connected, promised to put Vernon in touch socially with whatever highranking military officers he knew.“I’m quite excited about it, as believe me one feels an awful mutt in this place without a uniform,” wrote Vernon. “I feel like a bad actor trying to see Shubert for a job.” He was surprised to find London rather lively in this second year of the war, though of course it was a far different town than he’d left back in 906: “the show business is better than it’s been in years, the place is simply packed with soldiers, who look splendid.” Till his military connections came through,Vernon socialized, and he looked down his nose at the dancing styles, “five years behind the times. There are no chic women to speak of, but the men are awfully smart, and it makes one feel very proud to see how they take this war, it makes you feel awfully patriotic and sure of winning.”Absence from Irene (and boredom) made his heart grow fonder: “I could cry I’m so lonely sometimes,” he wrote the same week he’d arrived,“and everything reminds me of the time when we were here together.” He was further dismayed by a trip to his hometown, where he found that “all my old school friends have gone, and some of them unfortunately have been killed.” Vernon finally got his commission not through Lawrence Grossmith but through a luncheon at the Royal Navy Yacht Club, where he encountered an actor/aviator friend,Robert Loraine,who took him off to the War Office. A major in charge told Loraine, “Well, if he can fly, and if you vouch for him, he can go right in,” and voilà! on March 5, 96, Vernon found himself a...

Share