Private Edward Durrant 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade 27th August 1900 |
When one considers the terrible surroundings of a battle-field, the awful spectacle of dead and dying men, the strain on the nerves, the excitement and noise of firing, it is not strange to hear of any soldier succumbing to the mental strain involved. At Spion Kop, while men were being literally torn to pieces by shell-fire, it has been placed on record that some of our men were seen wandering about calmly as if among the peaceful fields of England, and it is not difficult to realize that men, in the midst of such awful carnage, became battle-dazed and temporarily deranged. Such a case occurred at Bergendal, on August 27, 1900, when a soldier, Acting-Corporal Wellar, having been wounded, became dazed, and getting up from the firing-line, commenced to run towards the enemy. Private Durrant, seeing the man's condition, started after him, caught and, pulled him down, endeavouring to quieten him, but, finding this too severe a task to accomplish alone, he carried the man for two hundred yards under a tremendous fire, and placed him in a safe position, a afterwards returning to his place in the fighting-line. |