He helped clear them out, but fell shot in the chest. Mr. Whittall made the following brief entry in his diary at the time:
“Flag-captain Jellicoe, Centurion, dangerously wounded in the chest; feared mortally. Lieutenant Bamber, also of the Centurion, and Midshipman Burke also both wounded. The enemy’s fire throughout the day was also terrific, and for the most part fairly well aimed.”
He pays a high compliment to Captain Jellicoe, for he says that it was owing to the splendid way in which the British troops were handled that the casualties were no heavier than they were.
The response of the men was splendid, and their behaviour under a terrific fire excellent.
But Mr. Whittall acknowledges that “it was a shocking business.”
[CHAPTER VI]
THE SPIRIT OF DRAKE
In a recent issue of the Pall Mall Gazette Mr. Whittall paints a very good pen portrait of Captain Jellicoe at this time.
“It was to him that I was referred for permission to accompany the relieving force, and I can see him now as he put a few terse, direct questions to me before granting the required permit. A man below middle height, alert, with that in the calm, grey eyes which spoke of decision and a serene confidence in himself, not the confidence of the over-sure, but that of the real leader of men. A man whose features would have been unpleasantly hard but for the lurking humour of the eyes and for certain humorous lines about a mouth that on occasion could take the likeness of a steel trap. A man to trust instinctively and one to like from the beginning. Those were my first impressions of him as he stood that June morning watching the troop trains discharge their freights on to a dusty North China platform. Later when I came to know him he inspired me with the same feeling of affection with which he was regarded by every one with whom he had occasion to come into close contact. There was, and is, the magnetism about the man which stamps the personality of him who is indeed a commander rather than one who commands.”