https://youtu.be/jzFpt5h0rrc?si=quRGys3S0XDmCcsX&t=71Britain's unkillable soldier: the harder he tried, the more he failed miserably. This man was destined to live a long life and die in his sleep.
This was a real soldier. Lieutenant General Sir Adrien Paul Ghislain Carton De Wiart was a British soldier and then officer, born of Belgian and Irish parents. He was awarded the VC, the highest military decoration awarded for Valour, “in the face of the enemy”.
The VC was deliberately intended to have no monetary value, and the original inscription on the Victoria Cross was to read “For the Brave.” Queen Victoria turned down that suggestion, explaining that all her soldiers were brave.
He served in the Boer War, the First World War, and the Second World War. He was shot in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear, and was blinded in his left eye. Not only that, he survived two plane crashes, declaring, after the first crash, “God, I love this sh*t.” He tunnelled out of a POW camp and tore off his fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them.
He described his First World War experiences as, quite frankly, “the best time of my life.” He didn’t drink to forget; he drank to remember, and he disliked the Americans because he blamed them for both wars ending early.
This man was a warrior, the Brits don't usually award medals.
Born in 1880, Carton de Wiart died in 1963 in Cork, Ireland, in his sleep, and on that day, I suspect even the Grim Reaper took a bow.
As the saying goes, they don't make 'em like that any more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Carton_de_Wiart
