worthy and to share in the risks and struggles of men'. 23 He could not bear to stay safely behind the line while his compatriots were dying in their tens of thousands. Ziegler has recorded that he never stopped trying to get to the front line and never stopped hating it when he was there - he found the shelling terrifying and was ready to say so. 24 After spending his first night in the trenches in July 1915, Edward wrote to his father:
My impressions that night were of constant close proximity to death, repugnance for the stink of the unburied corpses . . . and general gloom and apprehension. It was all a real eye opener to me, now I had some slight conception of all that our officers and men have to go thro!! The whole life is horrible and ghastly beyond conception. 25
Edward was horrified at the ineffectiveness of the Allies' strategy, with its repeated fruitless attacks, achieving at best the occupation of a few trenches. 26 During the Battle of the Somme he wrote that, 'These continuous heavy casualty lists make me sick ... I can't keep the wretched infantry being slaughtered out of my thoughts.' 27 His admiration of the fighting men and a sense of his own inadequacy made him reluctant to wear the war decorations he was given. In 1916 he was awarded the Military Cross, which he felt he had not deserved. 28 He eventually got himself posted to the staff of the British Expeditionary Force's commander in France. Whenever possible, he moved to the battle zone, and had a narrow escape visiting positions at the front before the Battle of Loos. However, he did not take unnecessary risks, according to General Sir Ian Hamilton: 'He did take risks, but they were always in the line of duty. We did worry about him . . . but not because of any insubordination on his part.' His most important role in the war was to boost the morale of the soldiers - a job at which he excelled. One soldier later wrote to him a letter of thanks for his encouragement:
Our King, I saw you in the trenches in front of Arras in March or Feb 1917. The [Battalion| did not know you were there, it was your youth that made me recognise you, being 17 myself I wondered at you looking so young & your face 8c medals flashed a photograph into mind that I had seen of you in uniform 8c I knew & I worried & pondered, you should not have been there. But it gave me courage to carry on when sometimes all hope had fled." 30
In 1916 the Prince went on a morale-boosting visit to the Canal Zone in the Middle East, where he met Australians and New Zealanders evacuated from the battle of Gallipoli.
The Aga Khan, the leader of the Ismaili sect of Muslims and a very wealthy and cosmopolitan man, also met Edward during the war. He recalled later that he knew 'the man who has said so poignantly and so truly ... "I learned about war on a bicycle" - endlessly trundling his heavy Army bicycle along the muddy roads of Flanders, to places like Poperinghe and Montauban and the villages around Ypres.' Edward's spirit, added the Aga Khan, was stamped forever by the slaughter and waste of those years of trench warfare. 31
During his four years on the Western Front, Edward achieved a 'quite novel popular touch' by rubbing shoulders with thousands of ordinary people in the trenches, observed Lloyd George. 32 An American soldier said that his 'manner was so simple and unassuming - he was simply one soldier among a group of soldiers - that he won the liking and respect of all of us.' 33 Soldiering brought to the Prince of Wales, as to many other fighting men of the ruling classes, contact with men outside their own narrow circles. 'The First World War', he wrote later, 'had made it possible for me to share an unparalleled human experience with all manner of men.' 34 In a letter written from Belgium at the end of the war, he told Freda Dudley Ward that, 'One can't help liking all the men & taking a huge interest in them.' 35 Harold Macmillan, who came from a very wealthy family and
My impressions that night were of constant close proximity to death, repugnance for the stink of the unburied corpses . . . and general gloom and apprehension. It was all a real eye opener to me, now I had some slight conception of all that our officers and men have to go thro!! The whole life is horrible and ghastly beyond conception. 25
Edward was horrified at the ineffectiveness of the Allies' strategy, with its repeated fruitless attacks, achieving at best the occupation of a few trenches. 26 During the Battle of the Somme he wrote that, 'These continuous heavy casualty lists make me sick ... I can't keep the wretched infantry being slaughtered out of my thoughts.' 27 His admiration of the fighting men and a sense of his own inadequacy made him reluctant to wear the war decorations he was given. In 1916 he was awarded the Military Cross, which he felt he had not deserved. 28 He eventually got himself posted to the staff of the British Expeditionary Force's commander in France. Whenever possible, he moved to the battle zone, and had a narrow escape visiting positions at the front before the Battle of Loos. However, he did not take unnecessary risks, according to General Sir Ian Hamilton: 'He did take risks, but they were always in the line of duty. We did worry about him . . . but not because of any insubordination on his part.' His most important role in the war was to boost the morale of the soldiers - a job at which he excelled. One soldier later wrote to him a letter of thanks for his encouragement:
Our King, I saw you in the trenches in front of Arras in March or Feb 1917. The [Battalion| did not know you were there, it was your youth that made me recognise you, being 17 myself I wondered at you looking so young & your face 8c medals flashed a photograph into mind that I had seen of you in uniform 8c I knew & I worried & pondered, you should not have been there. But it gave me courage to carry on when sometimes all hope had fled." 30
In 1916 the Prince went on a morale-boosting visit to the Canal Zone in the Middle East, where he met Australians and New Zealanders evacuated from the battle of Gallipoli.
The Aga Khan, the leader of the Ismaili sect of Muslims and a very wealthy and cosmopolitan man, also met Edward during the war. He recalled later that he knew 'the man who has said so poignantly and so truly ... "I learned about war on a bicycle" - endlessly trundling his heavy Army bicycle along the muddy roads of Flanders, to places like Poperinghe and Montauban and the villages around Ypres.' Edward's spirit, added the Aga Khan, was stamped forever by the slaughter and waste of those years of trench warfare. 31
During his four years on the Western Front, Edward achieved a 'quite novel popular touch' by rubbing shoulders with thousands of ordinary people in the trenches, observed Lloyd George. 32 An American soldier said that his 'manner was so simple and unassuming - he was simply one soldier among a group of soldiers - that he won the liking and respect of all of us.' 33 Soldiering brought to the Prince of Wales, as to many other fighting men of the ruling classes, contact with men outside their own narrow circles. 'The First World War', he wrote later, 'had made it possible for me to share an unparalleled human experience with all manner of men.' 34 In a letter written from Belgium at the end of the war, he told Freda Dudley Ward that, 'One can't help liking all the men & taking a huge interest in them.' 35 Harold Macmillan, who came from a very wealthy family and
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