My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyolder, heavier and stronger than I was, so all depended on what remained of theboxing skill I had not practised since taking up fencing well over two years before. Ihad a lively apprehension that timing and accuracy of punches would be lacking, inwhich case I should be for it.He started with a series of rushes and wild, swinging punches, which I avoided withfootwork or ducked, without much trouble. It was evident he knew little of boxing,and the only remaining question was whether I could still connect with accuratepunches. He became annoyed by my evasions and rushed me with muchdetermination when he thought he had me against the wall. I side-stepped in themanner so often practised for emergence from the ropes with the good Ryan, and hecrashed into the wall. Now really incensed he turned and came at me like a bull, but,happily, as became an officer and a gentleman, with his chin up. This time I did notside-step but stepped right into him with the long practised straight left which—mirabile dictu—connected plump on the point of the chin. He went down, and out;even before I could follow through with the usual right. He was really knocked out byhis own weight and momentum. It was not at all difficult for anyone who had beenmade to practise this punch so often; fortunately it was still there.This incident gained me surprisingly—for my opponent was only big, he lackedskill—a most disproportionate prestige as a pugilist. It was therefore unfortunate that Iwas involved in another incident directly afterwards, as it rather appeared I wasalways throwing this skill about. Our Sandhurst polo team had suffered its first defeat.We were inordinately proud of having managed to beat a few subaltern teams inAldershot and the reverse was a big disappointment. We ascribed it to a shortage ofponies and I, in particular, was concerned to find out what could have happened to apony which I was to have ridden; the arrangement was that it would be bought ifsuitable. It appeared to have been sent not to Aldershot, where we had our match, butto Wellington, the practice ground of the R.M.C., by instruction of another cadet whoalso thought of buying it. I went to see him in order to complain that he hadcontributed to Sandhurst losing the match. I was no doubt not very conciliatory, andhe appeared to me in no way contrite; I thought, perhaps mistakenly, he was rude. Anargument followed, and ended in a fight, which I won. It was considered by some ofhis friends an affront, because he was two years older than I was and in his last periodat Sandhurst, while I was in my first term. Also in their view I should not have foughtbecause I was likely to win. There was in my opinion no certainty whatever about this,as I maintained in subsequent discussion with an offer to fight anyone else. Aftersome talk between the two sides the incident appeared closed and I parted from myfriends to go to my room.Later in the evening a fair number of the other side attacked my room, which theyfailed to enter; no one was in any way responsible for what then occurred, as no onewas near me. I knew that a number of my friends were in an adjoining block, anddecided to climb out, join them and take the attack in the rear. Normally aperformance of this kind gave me little trouble, but on this occasion I missed myfoothold and fell some way, injuring my leg. The injury was not severe, and about sixweeks later I was passed A1, fit for active service, and was back at Sandhurst for hardtraining on the outbreak of war. Two years later, after serving in the Royal FlyingCorps, with air crashes followed by trench service, I was out of the war for good withone leg an inch and a half shorter than the other, in the category C3.37 of 424