22 AWARDED FOR VALOUR
Take up the White Man’s burden –
Send forth the best ye breed –
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve the captive’s need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild –
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.^65
The evolving concept of the heroic ideal during the Victorian Era is
demonstrated by a comparison of Macaulay and Henty. At mid-century the
heroic paradigm was quite pragmatic. By the end of the century it had
developed an artificial heroic morality that could not accept its heroes ‘warts
and all.’
The subject of one of Macaulay’s most famous essays, Robert, Lord Clive,
was not a terribly virtuous individual, and Macaulay presented him in his
natural form, without any laundering of events.^66 In Macaulay’s estimation,
Clive’s virtues outweighed his failings: ‘But every person who takes a fair
and enlightened view of his whole career must admit that our island, so
fertile in heroes and statesmen, has scarcely ever produced a man more truly
great in either arms or in council.’^67
Henty, on the other hand, rewrote history to expunge the memory of a
midshipman stripped of the Victoria Cross. Henty wove the true historical
account of Captain William Peel into the tale of Jack Archer, placing the
midshipman under his command in the Naval Brigade before Sevastopol.
Much was made of the captain’s leadership: ‘Captain Peelwas just the
man to get the greatest possible amount of work from them. Always in high
spirits, taking his full share in all the work, and exposing himself recklessly
in the heaviest fire, he was almost idolized by his men.’^68
Jack was chosen to accompany the captain in the Battle of Inkerman, but
was later commanded to lie down out of harm’s way during the thick of the
battle. Henty spent some considerable ink describing the exploits of various
historical individuals during the Inkerman battle scenes, but on the conduct
of Captain Peel he remained virtually mute.
Yet the real Peel was actually accompanied in his adventures by a
midshipman, Edward St John Daniel, of HMSDiamond. Both Peel and Daniel,
his young aide-de-camp received the Cross:
Midshipman Daniel was one of the volunteers from HMSDiamond, who,
under the command of the captain [Peel] brought in powder to the battery
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