During the Great War, a lot of patriotic spin was imparted to the worst war news. One hundred years ago this week, Perth's Sunday Times reported Britain's first war wounded were coming home in great spirits.
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"Many Bandages But Light Hearts," the Times' man in London enthused.
"With the arrival of increasing numbers of wounded soldiers from France, the grim reality of war is being brought home more closely to the British nation. Some hundreds of invalids were landed at various ports, where they were given a warm welcome. Memorable scenes were witnessed at Waterloo [London] on the arrival of two train loads [about 500 souls] of wounded. Enthusiastic cheers from a crowd of spectators densely packed behind barricades greeted the appearance of the trains, and the injured men were obviously stirred by the heartiness of their reception.
"But the most striking feature of the scene was the demeanour of the heroes themselves. Officers and men alike, many of them obviously suffering much pain, were in the best of spirits. Indeed, their cheerfulness was irresistible and contagious, so much so that the public, somewhat depressed perhaps by the evidence of war before their eyes, found themselves entering into the proceedings with a lightness of heart they had not anticipated."
The bandaged Tommies were full of good news about German soldiers' ineptness and the promise this gave of an early Allied victory.
"'Shoot?' echoed a burly infantryman, whose head was swathed in bandages; 'Germans, shoot?' Why they couldn't hit this station at 1000 yards.'"
