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Al,
No, Willie Fry did not write his posthumous article because he was not ‘pissed off’ by his treatment in the Canadian Senate. But I was very angry by the stupid individual – I think his name was Moulson – who made such disparaging remarks about Willie in public without knowing a thing about him or his record of service in the war. I wrote to him, in very strong terms, detailing Willie’s service record – from a PBI in 1914, then the RFC/RAF until the end of the war, with most of that time on active service in France. He sent a letter of apology. Not good enough. If he had had the courage and the decency that he accused Willie of not having he would have gone public. I wanted him to, but was advised by an American friend to let it go at that. Advice which I bitterly regretted taking at the time and still do.
Willie’s main feeling regarding the bringing of the Bishop thing into the open was one of annoyance at Joe Warne for telling the Canadian film crew, breaking what had been told to him by Willie in confidence, and naming him as the source. Willie always refused to be interviewed by anyone on the subject, especially someone (Wise) who came over from Canada because, as he said many times to me, ‘how can I answer the questions I know they will ask me about Bishop without telling the truth’. He had no wish to give offence to members of the Bishop family and was unhappy that his name had been linked with the matter. I knew him for some years before he confided in me his feelings about Bishop. You must remember that he had no personal dislike of Bishop, both he and Grid Caldwell told me how B was popular in the mess and with his squadron mates. But they all thought he was a ‘bullshitter and a medal chaser’. (Grid’s words) Don’t forget B’s claims etc were unimportant to them, they didn’t hold it against him, they all expected to be dead within the coming days or weeks, what did it matter?. Later in life, of course, Willie thought it unjust that B’s post war reputation – undeserved in Willie’s view – unfairly overshadowed men that Willie admired and thought were far more worthy of recognition – people like Duke Meintjes, Grid Caldwell, Horn, Foot etc. They were the real heroes to Willie. In his mind B didn’t even come close to them, especially in leading men. The only way the Senate hearings influenced him to write his side of the story was a natural wish defend his name, to tell his side of the story and to justify his view, a view which had been made public through no fault of his own
Regards
Alex
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