1914: THE LAST STAND OF THE THIN RED LINE 123
Compare McNamara’s act to that of Lord William Beresford:
On 3 July 1879 at Ulundi, Zululand, during the retirement of a recon-
noitering party, Captain Lord William Beresford went to the assistance
of an NCO of the 24th Regiment, whose horse had fallen and rolled on
him. The Zulus were coming in great numbers, but Lord William, with
the help from a sergeant of the Frontier Light Horse, managed to mount
the injured man behind him. He was, however so dizzy that the sergeant,
who had been keeping back the advancing Zulus, gave up his carbine and,
riding alongside helped to hold him on. They finally reached safety.^58
Had McNamara been on horseback his citation could easily have come from
the nineteenth century. As it stands, the citation is a bit suspicious: if the
‘hostile cavalry approaching’ was an immediate threat, how did McNamara
and his unnamed companion have time to take off, crash, and then get to and
repair the other aircraft and fly away to safety without coming under attack?
Showing ‘good form’ was an important aspect of the early VCs in the nine-
teenth century, even if the act did not accomplish much in concrete terms:
On 20 September 1854 at the Battle of the Alma, Crimea, when the
shot and fire from the batteries just in front of the battalion threw it
into momentary disorder, it was forced out of its formation, becoming
something of a huge triangle, with one corner pointing towards the
enemy. A captain was carrying the Queen’s Colour, which had the pole
smashed and 20 bullet holes through the silk. Sergeant [James] McKechnie
held up his revolver and dashed forward, rallying the men round the
Colours. He was wounded in the action.^59
The same attention to ‘good form’ can be seen in some of the early air VCs:
On 7 November 1915, second Lieutenant [Gilbert Stuart Martin] Insall,
on patrol in a Vickers fighter, engaged in the enemy machine, the pilot
of which was eventually forced to make a rough landing in a plowed
field. Seeing the Germans scramble out preparing to fire, the Lieutenant
dived to 500 feet and his gunner opened fire, whereupon they fled. After
dropping an incendiary bomb on the German aircraft he flew through
heavy fire, at 2,000 feet over the enemy trenches. The Vickers’ petrol tank
was hit, but the Lieutenant managed to land near a wood 500 feet inside
Allied lines and he and his gunner, after repairing his machine during the
night, flew back to base.^60
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