A Dawnay

[tr ed p 520], chalk, Rothenstein

'A. Dawnay' typeset brc, artist's signature and date, 'W. Rothenstein 1923', brc above title. Figure fills page, unlike reproduction in trade edition. Drawing printed in reddish brown, and the whole page is over-printed in the palest shade of this colour.

Lt-Colonel Alan Dawnay, on Allenby's staff.

p 491 [tr ed p 507] - 'Dawnay was Allenby's greatest gift to us - greater than thousands of baggage camels. As a professional officer, he had the class-touch: so that even the reddest hearer recognised an authentic redness. His was an understanding mind, feeling instinctively the special qualities of rebellion: at the same time, his war-training enriched his treatment of this antithetic subject. He married war and rebellion in himself; as, of old in Yenbo, it had been my dream every regular officer would. Yet, in three years' practice, only Dawnay succeeded.

'He could not take complete, direct command, because he did not know Arabic; and because of his Flanders-broken health. He had the gift, rare among Englishmen, of making the best of a good thing. He was exceptionally educated, for an Army officer, and imaginative. His perfect manner made him friends with all races and classes. From his teaching we began to learn the technique of fighting in matters we had been content to settle by rude and wasteful rules of thumb. His sense of fitness remodelled our standing.'

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