An Onlooker in France 1917-1919 | Page 8

all his men, and that he truly
loved them; and I knew they loved him. Never once, all the time I was
in France, did I hear a "Tommy" say one word against "'Aig."
Whenever it became my honour to be allowed to visit him, I always left
feeling happier--feeling more sure that the fighting men being killed
were not dying for nothing. One felt he knew, and would never allow
them to suffer and die except for final victory.
When I started painting him he said, "Why waste your time painting me?
Go and paint the men. They're the fellows who are saving the world,
and they're getting killed every day."
The second time I was there, just after lunch, the Chief had gone to his
room, and several Generals, Colonel Fletcher, Sassoon and myself were
standing in the hall, when suddenly a most violent explosion went off,
all the windows came tumbling in, and there was great excitement, as
they thought the Boche had spotted the Chiefs whereabouts. The
explosions went on, and out came the Chief. He walked straight up to
me, laid his hand on my shoulder and said: "That's the worst of having
a fellow like you here, Major. I thought the Huns would spot it," and,
having had his joke, went back to his work. He was a great man. It
turned out to be a munition dump which had exploded near by, and the
noise was deafening for about eight hours.

This was the time of the great fight round the chemical works at Roeux,
and I was drawing the men as they came out for rest. They were mostly
in a bad state, but some were quite calm. One, I remember, was quite
happy. He had ten days' leave and was going back to some village near
Manchester to be married. He showed me her photograph, (p. 029) a
pretty girl. Perhaps he was killed afterwards.
[Illustration: IX. Air-Marshal Sir H. M. Trenchard, Bart., K.C.B., etc.]
The view from Mont St. Eloy was fine, with the guns belching out
flame on the plain in the midday sun.
One day I was painting the C.-in-C., and at lunch-time the news came
in that General Trenchard was there. The C.-in-C. said: "Orpen must
see 'Boom,' he's great," so I was taken off and we met him in the garden.
A huge man with a little head and a great personality, proud of one
thing only, that is, that he is a descendant of Jack Sheppard. With him,
to my delight, was Maurice Baring (his A.D.C.). The General was told
that I wanted to see the aerodromes, and Maurice shyly said: "May I
take Orpen round, sir? I know him." Gee! How happy I was when the
General said: "All right, you see to it, Baring."
I painted "Boom" a few days later in a beautiful château with the most
wonderful old stables. They have all been burnt down since. "Boom"
worked hard all the time I painted. A few days later Baring told me that
he had spoken to "Boom" and told him how much I admired his head.
"Boom" replied: "Damned if he showed it in his painting." And yet he
was worshipped by all the flying boys.
About this time I had sent from England Maurice Baring's "In
Memoriam" to Lord Lucas. It made a tremendous impression on me
then, and still does. I think it is one of the greatest poems ever written,
and by far the greatest work of art the war has produced.
Baring took me out for a great day round the aerodromes. We visited
several and lunched with a Wing-Commander, Colonel Freeman, who
was most kind, a great lover of books, a lot of which Maurice used to
supply him with. After this, we visited a squadron where there was to

(p. 030) be a test fight between a German Albatross, which had been
captured intact, and one of our machines. The fight was a failure,
however, as just after they got up something went wrong with the
radiator of the Albatross; but later Captain Little did some wonderful
stunts on a triplane. I also saw Robert Gregory there, but had no chance
to speak to him. But I learnt that he was doing very well and was most
popular in the squadron, and that he had painted some fine scenery for
their theatre.
St. Pol possessed an open-air swimming-bath, a strange thing for St.
Pol, but there it was--a fine large swimming-bath, full of warm water
which came from some chemical works. I used to swim there every
evening when I got back from work. The one thing that struck me at
that time was the difference between nudity and uniform--while bathing
one could look at and study