Adrian Carton de Wiart: The unkillable soldier

Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart was blind, a war hero who fought hand in three major conflicts throughout six decades survived plane crashes and POW camps. His story is like something out of a comic own boys.

Carton de Wiart served in the Boer War, World War I and World War II. In the process, he was shot in the face of losing his left eye, and was also shot through the skull, hip, leg, ankle and ear.

In the first World War, he was seriously wounded eight times mentioned in despatches and six times.

Having already lost an eye and a hand in battle, Carton de Wiart, as commander, was by his men grenade pin with his teeth and threw it with his arm at the Battle of the Somme, won saw the Cross Victoria.

WW1 historian Timothy Bowman believes Carton de Wiart example help demystify some myths.

"His story reminds us that all British generals of World War II were a 'general Chateau" as shown in Blackadder. He put the heroism of the highest order.

"Evelyn Waugh allegedly Carton de Wiart used as a model for his fire-eaters of the fictional creation, Ritchie hook brigadier, but the creation of fiction Waugh had far less adventurous than its real equivalent of life."

He speaks for the character Carton de Wiart, despite being in the history of the British Army, in his autobiography, he wrote one of the most experienced soldiers. "Honestly, I had enjoyed the war"

It was May 5, 1880. In 1891 he was sent to a boarding school in England, goes straight to Oxford to study in an aristocratic family born in Brussels.

In 1899 he saw the opportunity to experience his first taste of war. Abandoning his studies, he left South Africa as a soldier in the British army during the Second Boer War serving. When he was in the military age, not a British citizen and not the approval of his father was to be had, he pretended to be 25 and have me under a pseudonym.

Carton de Wiart (far right) with Winston Churchill in 1943

It was a baptism of fire to receive with gunshot wounds to the stomach and abdomen, there must be a return to England to an end. Although eager to get back in the mix, he had to wait more than ten years in order to experience more frontline action.

At the beginning of World War 1 Carton de Wiart In September 1914, now naturalized British, was serving with the Somaliland Camel Corps, fighting against the forces of the state Dervish.

When attacking a fortress of the enemy, he was shot in the arm and face, his left eye and part of the loss of his ear. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his exploits.

Speaking of 1964, Mr. Ismay, who served Carton de Wiart next Somaliland, described the incident:

"He has not checked his pace, but I think the ball stabbed his language was horrible. The doctor could do nothing for her eye, but we had to keep him with us. He must have been agony. "

Mr. Ismay was also a preview of the innate love Carton de Wiart fight:

"I really believe that he considered the loss of an eye as a blessing because it allows him to move from Somaliland to Europe, where he thought the real action was."

He returned to England to recover in a nursing home in Park Lane. It is in the same spot every time he injured back later. This is how commonplace they remain private loan pajamas for her next visit.

While recovering from this injury Carton de Wiart a glass eye. It caused him discomfort as he would have thrown him in a taxi and instead bought a black patch over one eye.

Carton de Wiart was painted by Sir William Orpen Newenham Montague

Not to delay him long these setbacks. He quickly realized his ambition to fight on the Western Front, he sent in Ypres in May 1915.

During the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans launched artillery fire in the left hand Carton de Wiart was shaken. According to his autobiography, Happy Odyssey, he fired two fingers when the doctor refused to amputate. His hand was removed by a surgeon later this year.

How he overcame injury and disability remains a source of inspiration, says Sergeant Thomas Color O'Donnell, who served in Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion Scots Guards.

"For him who has suffered any injuries and disappeared in many conflicts as rehabilitation and never give up is truly inspiring, especially in view of medical facilities, they failed then due. I do not know how he does it.

"The soldiers Carton de Wiart are a true example of troops serving today. It is very sad that sacrificed so much, its history is not very well known. I feel like the memory of the war dead, it is important to remember because this wounded soldiers as it passed by countless conflicts. "