We were delighted to receive a special birthday gift recently. It was a large book. The opportunity to sit down and read a worthy volume during mid-winter was welcome. The author is Tom Scott. The volume's title is Searching for Charlie: In Pursuit of the Real Charles Upham VC & Bar (Takapuna: Upstart Press, 2020).
As most of our readers will be aware, Upham was a remarkable man. To win a VC (Victoria Cross) is rare enough. To win two is pretty much unheard of. Some historians have even reckoned that Upham's exploits were worth three, if not four VC's.
But there is something even more remarkable. Many years later, at his death there were four death notices published for Charlie Upham in New Zealand papers. There were the usual kind--death notices and appreciations from family and from his colleagues. There was also a third from the Greek community, extending their deepest sympathy.
But there was one more obituary. It read:
UPHAM, Charles Hazlitt (VC and Bar)
One of the bravest and one of the best soldiers--in
deep respect. Sympathy for family and friends on behalf
of the Association of former Afrika Korps, Karl Heniz
Boettger (Col. Ret'd), Hamburg. Germany.
Tom Scott writes:
Whoa! The Germans put a death notice in a New Zealand newspaper saluting a former foe? How extraordinary is that? [Tom Scott, Searching for Charlie, p. 26.]
Indeed.
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