Youth
Edward Mannock was born on 24 May 1887, probably in Ballincollig, County Cork, Ireland, although Aldershot and Preston Barracks in Brighton have also been claimed. He was the son of an English corporal in the British Army and an Irish mother. The family moved to India early in Mick's life, before postings brought the family back to England. In 1897, Mannock developed amoebic infestation which rendered him temporarily blind. Legend has it that it left him with permanently impaired vision; however accounts written by former comrades discount any such impairment. His father, a hard-drinking, brutal man, abandoned his family when Mick was twelve.
He had to leave school for a series of jobs including, in 1911, one with the National Telephone Company in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England. In 1913 he became the Secretary of the Wellingborough Independent Labour Party.
The outbreak of the war found him working as a telephone engineer in Turkey. The Turks interned him and his health rapidly declined in prison. Near death, he was repatriated and, in 1915, joined the Royal Army Medical Corps. By 1916, he had become an officer in the Royal Engineers and in August 1916 transferred to the Royal Flying Corps.
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Famous quotes containing the word youth:
“Colleges, in like manner, have their indispensable office,—to teach elements. But they can only highly serve us, when they aim not to drill, but to create; when they gather from far every ray of various genius to their hospitable halls, and, by the concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If I use the media, even with tricks, to publicise a black youth being shot in the back in Teaneck, New Jersey ... then I should be praised for it, and it’s more of a comment on them than me that it would take tricks to make them cover the loss of life.”
—Al, Rev. Sharpton (b. 1954)
“When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecks sound
To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the chequered shade;
And young and old come forth to play
On a sunshine holiday,”
—John Milton (1608–1674)