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Jingoism or a jolly good idea : Comments
By Bruce Haigh, published 22/3/2012The posthumous examination and recognition of military acts of heroism is a modern idea, but is it a good one?
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Like TV network hookups to Lone Pine and Long Tan, colour supplements bathed in sepia, and endless tales of derring-do on faraway beaches, every prelude to Anzac Day has to have some kind of sanctimonious focus on making us all remember yet some other thing that we forgot to thank the military for.
Of all the posthumous VC contenders listed in the article, the only one I can comment on is Private John Simpson, who was a committed socialist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies), which opposed the war and were later banned in Australia. He ended up at Gallipoli after deserting the navy and then enlisting in the army under another name in an effort to get home to England. I doubt if he'd particularly care one way or the other if he got a posthumous VC, except perhaps to say that the donkey did everything HE did.