Chapter 11 Empire

  1914 London

  A raven that quotes Chaucer - Dr.Gideon Marchant shook his

  head in disbelief, even after a month it was still uncanny.

  "Nothing ventured nothing gained." the raven cawed.

  He fed it a slice of pear as it perched on the window sill.

  The War Office had taken over the building and the bird had

  been inherited from the previous tenants.

  Gideon held out another piece of fruit. "No empty handed

  man can lure a bird."

  The raven crooked it's head as if considering his words,

  then took what was offered. Gideon looked at the crowds

  gathering in the street below. Each day he watched the

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  numbers of men who wanted to volunteer for War service

  grow, and it had been that way since August.

  The English army had had it's first engagement with the much

  larger and more experienced invading German forces.

  After a small initial victory at Mons in Belgium, came an almost

  inevitable reversal of fortune with heavy losses.

  What had followed was a demoralizing two week retreat into

  France. Now everyday more and more men waited for the

  enlistment depot doors to open.

  "And thus the sins of the Father." Gideon said to the raven,

  "will be visited upon the sons."

  *

  When the medical board offered him a civilian position with

  the War department, Gideon closed his practice in Oxford and

  moved to London. He told his family and friends that he wanted to

  do his bit for the war effort. It was a lie, he didn't care at all about the

  War or the King, or his damned British empire.

  The position was nothing more than regular paid employment and the

  chance to escape the insufferable musings of the Oxford social set.

  He shared a terrace house with his sister Aida in central London

  that overlooked Regents Park. Most mornings he walked the two miles

  to the enlistment depot in Scotland yard and often shared the streets

  with men he would see later in the day.

  He walked unnoticed among them listening to their conversations.

  Some were after adventure. Some like himself, saw it as nothing

  more than a way to earn money in difficult times.

  But the majority?

  They wanted nothing more than to fly the colours for King and country.

  Their blind patriotism sickened him.

  Why were they so eager to defend an Empire that had nothing but

  contempt for the working class? Had they thought about what would

  happen to their families if they didn't come home, or worse came home

  broken beyond repair.

  The men that stood out most to him though were the older ones.

  Sober and quiet, they usually walked alone appearing sometimes to

  be lost in thought. He knew what they were.

  They were veterans like himself.

  Men who had seen what the harvest of War brings.

  *