He certainly did. I was surprised I hadn't heard of him before. Definitely an early candidate to be a big hitter.

Amazing

Well, to be fair, parts of him had a life. Other parts died young.

Interesting character by the sounds of it.

[i]Evelyn Waugh supposedly used Carton de Wiart as the model for his fire-eating fictional creation, Brigadier Ritchie Hook[/i]

as soon as I started reading it I thought of Ritchie Hook!

😆 What an inspirational character..

Even with my die hard peacenik credentials I feel half moved to book a flight to Syria

serving with the Somaliland Camel Corps, fighting the forces of the Dervish state.

Captain Flashheart lives, what a legend.

Check out his wiki page for more details including the tale of him biting his own fingers off.

Makes Ranulph look like a softy.

I liked this bit;

During an attack on an enemy stronghold, he was shot in the arm and in the face, losing his left eye and part of his ear. He received the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his exploits.

Speaking in 1964 Lord Ismay, who served alongside Carton de Wiart in Somaliland, described the incident:

"He didn't check his stride but I think the bullet stung him up as his language was awful. The doctor could do nothing for his eye, but we had to keep him with us. He must have been in agony."

I could just imagine a posh officer shouting and swearing while running at the enemy after being shot.