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:
“We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
“The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“After all, life hasn’t much to offer except youth and I suppose for older people the love of youth in others.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)