Do You Agree with the View That the Average Tommy Was Unfit for Service?

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To be able to judge whether the average Tommy really was unfit for service, what exactly makes them unfit first has to be decided, for example many of them were drunk, as the lowest of society were recruited in bars, initially this is actually the fault of the army as they chose to recruit their forces in inns and alehouses, this therefore results in the Tommys being unfit for service. To an extent the view that the average Tommy was unfit for service could be agreed with, as source J, for instance, shows a Boer General describing them as a “thoroughly helpless creature”, “helpless” portrays them as being unprepared and incapable of tackling the challenges necessary of their position, the opposite of how a soldier, especially one during a war, should be described as. Despite this, there lies a controversy between whether the Tommys themselves, as soldiers, were actually unfit for service or whether it was the fault of the government and of the army for inadequately supplying and preparing them for their role. Source I provides evidence for the government’s ill treatment of the Tommys, a picture from Punch Magazine, published in 1890, shows a Tommy being well looked after, or “treated rational”, as this was satirical it shows that they were not treated like this at all and instead raises the question of whether the men were unfit for service or the way the government treated them caused them to be unfit for service. It could indeed be argued that the average Tommy was unfit for service, source J, published in 1902 by a leading Boer General, not only describes the Tommys as being “a thoroughly helpless creature”, but also continues on to say that “this individual helplessness has undoubtedly been one of the shortcomings of the British soldier during the War”. This description of the Tommys and their abilities clearly demonstrates them to not only lack the qualities

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