ABSTRACT
Lt Col Schonland, his two staff officers, Captain Phillips and Lieutenant Browne, and the contingent of Natal volunteers sailed in convoy from Cape Town for England on 21 March 1941 on board a British troopship [2]. They were amongst a large contingent of soldiers, sailors and airmen who were returning home from various theatres of war around the globe and they soon found themselves very much part of this military family that had accepted its lot in life, with a future that was never measured in more than a few hours at a time. These men fascinated Schonland. Most had already seenmuch action but their demeanours never conveyed any hint of outward concern about what was seemingly a perilous time ahead as Britain prepared for the worst. He saw around him ‘Lawrence of Arabia in various styles’ and soaked up an atmosphere that he described in his letters to Ismay as ‘naturally Conrad with a touch of Kipling’. These were officers whose lives had been moulded by Public School and Sandhurst, and for whom military inconvenience and even imminent death seemed to be just facts of life. He found themmagnificent as men, but at times almost tiresome in their bonhomie when surely they should have been concerned by what was about to befall them at home? Occasionally, news would reach the ship of British successes at sea or in the field but their reaction was always much the same. Whether triumphant or vanquished they showed little emotion, just a seemingly urbane superiority. This was surely the English character that had made the Empire-imperturbable and in command [3].
