| Valentine Fleming remembered [message #240507] |
Fr, 17 März 2006 02:17 |
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To better understand James Bond one must first know who Ian Fleming was. To
better understand who Ian was one must get a glimpse at his past and what
molded him into the man he grew up to be.
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The Times
Friday, May 25, 1917
Valentine Fleming
An Appreciation
"W.S.C." writes of the death of Major Valentine Fleming, M.P., who, as
announced in the times on Wednesday, was killed in action : --
This news will cause sorrow in Oxfordshire and in the House of Commons
and wherever the member of the Henley Division was well known. Valentine
Fleming was one of those younger Conservatives who easily and naturally
combine loyalty to party ties with a broad liberal outlook upon affairs and
a total absence of class prejudice. He was most earnest and sincere in his
desire to make things better for the great body of the people, and had
cleared his mind of all particularistic tendencies. He was a man of
thoughtful and tolerant opinions, which were not the less strongly or
clearly held because they were not loudly or frequently asserted. The
violence of faction and the fierce tumults which swayed our political life
up to the very threshold of the Great War, caused him a keen distress. He
could not share the extravagant passions with which the rival parties
confronted each other. He felt acutely that neither was wholly right in
policy and that both were wrong in mood. Although he could probably have
held the Henly Division as long as he cared to fight it, he decided to
withdraw from public life rather than become involved in conflicts whose
bitterness seemed so far to exceed the practical issues at stake. Friends
were not wanting on both sides of the House to urge him to remain and to
display the solid abilities he possessed. It is possible we should have
prevailed. He shared the hopes to which so many of his generation respond
of a better, fairer, more efficient public life and Parliamentary system
arising out of these trials. But events have been pursued a different
course.
As a Yeomanry officer he always took the greatest pains to fit himself
for military duties. There was scarcely an instructional course open before
the war to the Territorial Forces of which he had not availed himself, and
on mobilization there were few more competent civilian soldiers of his rank.
The Oxfordshire Hussars were the first or almost the first Yeomanry regiment
to come under fire from the enemy, and in the first battle of Ypres
acquitted themselves with credit. He had been nearly three years in France
as a squadron leader or second in command, and had been twice mentioned in
dispatches, before the shell which ended his life found him. From the
beginning his letters showed the deep emotions which the devastation and
carnage of the struggle aroused his breast. But the strength and buoyancy
of his nature were proofs against the somber realizations of his mind. He
never for a movement flagged or wearied or lost his spirits. Alert,
methodical, resolute, untiring he did his work, wheather perilous or dull,
without the slightest sign of strain or stress to the end. "We all of us,"
writes a brother officer, "were devoted to him. The loss to the regiment is
indescribable. He was, as you know, absolutely our best officer, utterly
fearless, full of resource, and perfectly magnificent with his men."
His passion in sport was deer stalking in his native Scotland. He rode well
and sometimes brilliantly to hounds, and was always a gay and excellent
companion. He had everything in the world to make him happy: a delightful
home life, active interesting business occupations, contented disposition, a
loveable and charming personality. He had more. He had that foundation of
spontaneous and almost unconscious self-suppression in the discharge of what
he conceived to be his duty without which happiness, however full, is
precious and imperfect. That these qualities are not singular in this
generation does not lessen the loss of those in whom they shine. As the war
lengthens and intensifies and the extending lists appear, it seems as if one
watched at night a well-loved city whose lights, which burn so bright, which
burn so true, are extinguished in the distance in the darkness one by one.
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| Re: Valentine Fleming remembered [message #240519 ] |
Fr, 17 März 2006 11:18 |
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Shadow - many, many thanks for this and for the Connery and Fleming
interviews. I'd long since lost links for the latter two items, and
they seem subsequently to have disappeared from the sites on which they
used to be hosted. As for the Valentine Fleming obituary, I'd heard of
it but never read it, and it's fascinating stuff. It also makes
Fleming's obituary for Bond in YOLT all the more poignant - it's hard
to avoid drawing comparisons between the two.
Best
Phil
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| Re: Valentine Fleming remembered [message #240527 ] |
Fr, 17 März 2006 12:30 |
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"The Shadow" <miehls [at] bright.net> wrote in message
news:s7udnTsMXurdk4fZRVn-pw [at] bright.net...
> To better understand James Bond one must first know who Ian Fleming was.
To
> better understand who Ian was one must get a glimpse at his past and what
> molded him into the man he grew up to be.
I was under the impression that Fleming grew up under the shadow of his
accomplishment but that his father didn't really mold him in any sense -- he
was pretty young when he was killed.
Jay
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| Re: Valentine Fleming remembered [message #240573 ] |
So, 19 März 2006 04:37 |
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Carcharias wrote:
> "The Shadow" <miehls [at] bright.net> wrote in message
> news:s7udnTsMXurdk4fZRVn-pw [at] bright.net...
>
>>To better understand James Bond one must first know who Ian Fleming was.
>
> To
>
>>better understand who Ian was one must get a glimpse at his past and what
>>molded him into the man he grew up to be.
>
>
> I was under the impression that Fleming grew up under the shadow of his
> accomplishment but that his father didn't really mold him in any sense -- he
> was pretty young when he was killed.
>
> Jay
Not growing up with a father is perhaps the reason he became more of a
risk taker as a young man, reckless in the way his fictional character
was.
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| Re: Valentine Fleming remembered [message #240586 ] |
So, 19 März 2006 16:10 |
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"The Shadow" <miehls [at] bright.net> wrote in message
news:laOdneh34YxuTIHZRVn-qg [at] bright.net...
> Not growing up with a father is perhaps the reason he became more of a
> risk taker as a young man, reckless in the way his fictional character
> was.
In what ways do you consider Fleming a risk-taker as a young man? I'm not
saying he wasn't (and I'm no expert on his life) but from what I know, he
pretty much had the cushion of money and didn't do anything extremely out of
the ordinary for a young man of means.
Jay
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| Re: Valentine Fleming remembered [message #240587 ] |
So, 19 März 2006 16:18 |
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Carcharias wrote:
> "The Shadow" <miehls [at] bright.net> wrote in message
> news:laOdneh34YxuTIHZRVn-qg [at] bright.net...
>
>>Not growing up with a father is perhaps the reason he became more of a
>>risk taker as a young man, reckless in the way his fictional character
>>was.
>
>
> In what ways do you consider Fleming a risk-taker as a young man? I'm not
> saying he wasn't (and I'm no expert on his life) but from what I know, he
> pretty much had the cushion of money and didn't do anything extremely out of
> the ordinary for a young man of means.
>
> Jay
Messing around with married women? ;)
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