This is an old book re-published nearly 110 years after its original publication. Its author, Mr. George Manington, was studying medicine in Paris in 1888. In early 1890, he met an old Austrian gentlemen who regaled him and his friends of his experiences in the French Foreign Legion in campaigns 1885 in Tonquin, now known as Tonkin in northern Vietnam. At loose ends with his life and inspired by the former Austrian Sergeant Major of the Legion, Manington went to the recruiting office of the Legion the next day. The recruiting officer was loath to immediately accept his enlistment and sent him away for a day to re-consider his decision. The next day, Manington returned and completed his enlistment for five years. He was immediately provided with travel funds and directed to report to Marseilles for transport to Sidi bel Abbes, the home of the Legion in Algeria.
Manington recounts the training he and his fellow recruits received. His description of not only the training, but the living arrangements are particularly interesting to anyone who has served under any flag.
Manington wrote of his primary instructor – his Drill Sergeant – “I thought I had fallen into the hands of a brute, but soon discovered that notwithstanding the invectives and threats with which his mouth was forever full, he was not a “bad sort,” his bark being worse than his bite.” His description reminded me of a couple of my own drill sergeants. The routine of the training day is well described and, though, the hours of the various training activities varied are familiar to any recruit.
Following his training, his unit was posted to an outpost for training along the border with Morocco. Though part of the trip was by train, much was by marching. As he wrote, “It was terribly hard work marching through the sand under the scorching African sun, laden as we were with all our kit.” Pulling support details, training, periods of hospitalization (surviving typhoid fever in his case), and drinking in the bars of his garrison town are each described and most descriptions will strike a chord with a “modern” soldier.
In January 1891 the post received a requisition for 500 Legionnaires to be posted to Tonquin (north Vietnam). He volunteered at once. One year after his enlistment he was enroute to Vietnam.
Manington spent the remainder of his enlistment in Tonquin. At this time the “Yen-The Rebellion” was in full force. The Yen-The Rebellion was a 26 year rebellion led by De Tham against French rule and the collaborating Nguyen dynasty. Based out of the Yen The District in north-east Vietnam, the rebel’s operations ranged from harassing local patrols, conducting guerrilla warfare, to conventional attacks on French forces according to Wikipedia. Manington was a participant in several operations against these forces.
Manington’s descriptions of the outpost to which he was assigned, his relationship with the camp’s primary interpreter, the operations in which he participated are described. He also describes his bout with malaria, which nearly killed him. Through a friendly intermediary and his spotless record, he was re-assigned to the Brigade headquarters in Hanoi. His descriptions of his life on the staff are equally vivid. It was while on the staff that he finally received a promotion – his last – to corporal.
On 27 February 1895 he was released from the Legion to return to civilian life. Of his experience he wrote, “While serving in the corps I had learned that there were good and brave men outside my own country, and that courage, obedience, self-abnegation and national pride are not the monopoly of any one race.”
According to his editors throughout his life, Manington had been a student in France and Germany, a prospective doctor in Paris, a soldier in Algeria and Tonquin, a man of commerce in Indo-China, an interpreter, traveler, and journalist in South China, in addition to participating in less permanent occupations in Japan, the Philippines and other Asian countries.
This was an interesting book. Though written a century ago, Manington’s prose is easy to read and his story easy to follow. Of particular value to those of us not familiar with that period of Vietnamese history, Manington provides excellent background detail to the French conquest of Vietnam and the then-current state of affairs in France and Vietnam. I also found it interesting that this factual account of life in the Legion comports closely with P.C. Wren’s Beau Geste trilogy and numerous other short stories. An enjoyable and informative read. Recommended.

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A Soldier of the Legion An Englishman's Adventures Under the French Flag in Algeria and Tonquin