Sublime

If you met Lewis in the street, you might guess that he was a lawyer or a kindly geography teacher. In fact, he was one of the most efficiently deadly men in the British services.

Life at the War Office was very strange at first. Millis had to share an office with Lieutenant-Colonel Gubbins, who also came under Joe Holland in some capacity or other. It was quite a pleasant office on about the fourth floor and as Gubbins was a half colonel it had a carpet. But it was not very large, and had to accommodate Gubbins plus his mil

It was at the bar of White’s, one of the most exclusive gentleman’s clubs in London, that Stirling first learned about a form of soldiering that seemed much closer to the adventure and excitement he had in mind: a crack new commando unit intended to hit important enemy targets with maximum impact. Stirling’s cousin Lord Lovat had been among the fir

Ernest Shackleton, a member of Wooster Lodge 79 and Siloam Lodge 32 in Connecticut, was a pioneer Antarctic explorer. During an expedition in January, 1915, Shackleton's ship "Endurance" became locked in an ice floe. Eventually the pressure of the ice crushed the ship's hull, rendering it useless except for shelter and provisions. Shackle

In fact, they flirted; and Lydgate was secure in the belief that they did nothing else. If a man could not love and be wise, surely he could flirt and be wise at the same time? Really, the men in Middlemarch, except Mr Farebrother, were great bores, and Lydgate did not care about commercial politics or cards: what was he to do for relaxation?

Gubbins had won his MC as a gunner in the First World War, fought against the Bolsheviks in revolutionary Russia and against Sinn Fein in the Irish Civil War of 1922–3, and spoke French, Russian and Urdu.