138 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Table 7.1 Acts winning the Victoria Cross, 1915: winners by quarter
Quarter Jan.–Mar. April–June July–Sept. Oct.–Dec. 1915 Total
Total 13 50 39 15 117

Awarded Raw % Raw % Raw % Raw % Raw %

War-Winning 11 85 37 78 25 64 5 34 80 68

• Offensive 8 61 19 38 11 28 4 27 42 36


• Defensive 1 8 12 24 7 18 1 7 21 18


• Symbolic 0 0 2 4 2 5 0 0 4 3


• Secondary 2 15 6 12 5 13 0 0 13 11
  Humanitarian 2 15 10 20 13 33 10 66 35 30


• Enlisted 2 15 8 16 11 28 8 53 29 25


• Officer 0 0 2 4 2 5 2 13 6 5
  Symbolic 0 0 1 2 1 3 0 0 2 2
  Special 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
  demonstrated a willingness to pour them into battle with seemingly little
  regard to casualty figures. Second Lieutenant Lionel Sotheby was shocked
  by the attitude that greeted him upon arriving in France in January 1915:
  I boarded a Harfleur train at 7.30 P.M. & had a most interesting talk
  with some Tommies back from the front. I think they said they were
  from the Munsters, but am not sureThe stories they had to tell were
  very interesting & extremely hard to put down on paper. All 6 declared
  themselves fed up with the war, much to my surprise.^27
  Sotheby was not alone in seeing a great deal of war-weariness among the
  veterans of the trenches. Robert Graves was worried about the attitude
  displayed by the old sweats influencing the new levies:
  The few old hands who went through the last show infect the new men
  with pessimism; they don’t believe in the war, they don’t believe in the
  staff. But at least they would follow their officers anywhere, because the
  officers happen to be a decent lot. They look forward to a battle because
  that gives them more chances of a cushy one in the arms or legs than
  trench warfare.^28
  Both of these were either a diary entry or a letter home, not memoirs written
  after years of reflection on the ‘bigger meaning’ of the war. In both cases