ABSTRACT
Each year, when the King’s Birthday Honours list is published, I wonder how much longer it will be before fitting recognition is givep to a man and a woman representing the Heroes of the Humdrum. Why not a title of Dame for a woman who has acted her part on the stage of life magnificently, and without an audience to applaud? A mother, for instance, of a large family, who works unceasingly from early morn till late at night, each day of every year. And a knighthood for the man who performs cheerfully and efficiently one of the unlovely tasks that must be done. The Order of Merit for that thin, drab, nondescript-looking little man, who leaves the house every morning round about 8 o’clock and returns round about 8 o’clock every evening; who gives every ounce of energy to an employer who pays him a sum that just enables him to give his wife and children the bare essentials of living—who does this uncomplainingly, even cheerfully: and is, to his family, not the drab, nondescript little man that we see, but a great hero—just Dad.
