Success in Athletics and how to obtain it
PREFACE lX Huns beneath until he was forced to reJOin his unit in the front line trench at daybreak. On the night that preceded the first advance on the Somme on July 1st, 1916, Flaxman was at Grommecourt, when he spent the whole of the waiting hours detonating bombs in order that his men might snatch what rest they could. When the advance was made he went forward with the rest; he was struck by a bullet and died between the German lines and our. own. When his brother searched for him after the battle he could find no trace; this is accounted for by the fact that the Germans were observed burying our dead after the attack had failed. Thus passed a simple gentleman, the best of sportsmen, and a very gallant soldier. I have told this record, not because I wish to belaud one who was my best friend, but because it is the history of almost every athlete who has gone out on service. I have met them and heard of them all over the world since the war began, and always it is the same tale: they are liked and un-. hesitatingly followed by the men just because they are good, clean sportsmen to the backbone, whom the soldier can and will follow unhesitatingly through hell-fire itself if need be. A new generation of athletes will arise to take the places of those who have fallen, and to this new generation I would say, "Follow the road the foot– steps of those who have passed have made plain for you; play the game as they played it, and for
Made with FlippingBook
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTM4MjQ=