He didn’t throw it in the Mersey! An article in today’s Guardian says it’s been found in an attic, and will go to auction.
The more I read about Sassoon, the more complex a character he seems. And his relationship with the truth becomes most interesting…
This Saturday I hope to go to the Imperial War Museum, to hear a talk about Sassoon’s relationship with T.E.Lawrence, who was also known to stretch the truth now and then.
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There’s a whole thesis there on the relation of the truth to the writings of ‘poets’ (loosely speaking) about the First World War. Sassoon and Lawrence, certainly, but Ford was probably the most overt truth-stretcher of the lot. His multifarious conflicting accounts of hsi own life must’ve made Max Saunders’ work on FMF: A Dual Life a nightmare. I think back, always, to the famous story, of Aldington going out for dinner with his father and inviting Ford. Ford proceeded to fascinate RA’s father with tales of his links with the pre-Raphaelites, ‘and then Ford began telling how he met Byron. I saw my father stiffen.’ (from Life for Life’s Sake, both quote and ref off the top of my head).
This comment is sooo late and the point may already have been made elsewhere, but I can’t let the statement that Sassoon lied about throwing away his medal go unanswered. Anyone who has studied Sassoon and read his books will know that it was his medal ribbon that he threw in the Mersey, not the medal itself. Soldiers did not walk about with medals jangling on their chests. They wore a ribbon sewn on to their tunic. Sassoon ripped this off and threw it away. It is an often repeated misconception by those who have not taken the time to actually read his books that he threw away the actual medal itself. He never said he did.
This post was a first reaction to the news article.Later posts and comments on the blog clarify the point, and come to much the same conclusion as you. It’s probably Robert Graves who gave the impression of the actual medal being thrown away, and this was reinforced by the memorable image in the film of “Regeneration”.
The truth? Oh, now, there’s a notoriously hard one to grasp.
But filter it through popular film, or popular sentiment, or popular anything foe that matter, and you’re sure to be completely lost.
Sassoon was known as “Mad” long before he
was encouraged to go to Scotland for his nerves. And Graves, if GTAT is anything to go by, hated just about everything, his parents, his school, the Army, the age he lived in, women and probably himself. Unfortunately, they are probably (along with Owen) just about the only frequently-listened-to voices to have survived from that unhappy war — about time we re-balanced the view?
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[...] to you the recent bloggy interest in “war poet” Siegfried Sassoon and his newly found Military Cross (see also the Guardian). George (Great War Fiction) Simmer tantalizes with The more I read about [...]