Let's Visit With the Foreign Legion

J.D. Newsom was an interesting guy. Born in China, raised in France and educated at Cambridge, he served with the British Army during the First World War and the American Navy during World War II. He also wrote a number of novels and short stories about the French Foreign Legion.

"The Medal," for instance, was published in the December 15, 1927 issue of Adventure. Full of dry humor as well as gritty action, it is a story that really draws you into plot and keeps you there.

The protagonist is an American named Alexander Sutton who marries a French girl while serving in the American Army during the Great War. And we learn, from reading about Sutton's woes, that its not a good idea to marry a woman when you don't share enough of a common language to make your situation clear to her. The poor girl thought she was marrying a rich man, not a man who one day hoped to be rich.

Sutton's family disapproves of the wife, who is herself expressing disapproval loudly and often. Eventually, Sutton mugs a guy to get enough money to take her back to France, where she promptly dumps him.

Sutton is nearly penniless and stranded in a French village, wondering what to do next, when a small Frenchman tries to pick his pocket of his few remaining francs. This, oddly, leads to a friendship between the two men and a mutual decision to join the Legion. Soon, Sutton finds himself serving in French-controlled North Africa, where he discovers that he can handle the physical hardships, but his French friend never, ever STOPS TALKING!

Here, Newsom actually manages to sneak in some sharp remarks about both the inherent absurdity of colonialism and the fact that those leading rebellions against European rulers don't necessarily care about the best interests of the local population. This lasts just a few paragraphs, but it both effectively comments on these issues and sets up the background for the action that soon follows. It's an impressive bit of writing.

And plenty of action does follow, with French forces getting ambushed, Sutton's talkative friend disgracing himself and later getting an opportunity to redeem himself, and Sutton himself discovering that--despite the incredible hardships and dangers--he has found a home in the Legion.

And even when the action gets intense, the story never loses its dry sense of humor. Sutton's relationship with his French sometimes-friend is fun and a brief sequence in which this friend gets Sutton stuck with taking an officer's dog for walks is wonderful.

You can read the story online HERE.