On this day in 1950 British Field Marshall Archibald Percival Wavell died.

Wavell was a well-known general in the Second World War where he came up against Rommel in North Africa. After a career of soldiering he became Viceroy of India shortly before the granting of independence.

He was an upright, cultured and sensitive man, judged by some to be too kind to be a great commander. On retirement, he produced the much loved anthology of poetry, Other Men’s Flowers. In this he added his own pithy remarks and even one of his own poems. This poem from Other Men’s Flowers, is by John Dryden, Alexander’s Feast:

Twas at the royal feast for Persia won
By Philip’s warlike son—
Aloft in awful state
The godlike hero sate
On his imperial throne;
His valiant peers were placed around,
Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound
(So should desert in arms be crown’d);
The lovely Thais by his side
Sate like a blooming Eastern bride
In flower of youth and beauty’s pride:—
Happy, happy, happy pair!
None but the brave
None but the brave
None but the brave deserves the fair!

Wavell added this typical note: “Whatever the desserts are, it is the bold rather than the merely brave who usually get the fair. On the other hand, the shy need never give up hope, some fair will get them one day; a woman out gunning never disdains a sitting shot.”

Today I seek self-honesty; to be able to say when I am wrong and to make amends when it is right to do so.