The Unkillable Soldier

In 1899, a young Belgian student named Adrian Carton de Wiart lied about his age and his nationality in order to serve with the British Army in South Africa. He really wanted to be a soldier. And over the next half-century, he worked hard to remain a soldier.

Carton de Wiart served in the Boer War, World War One and World War Two. In the process he was shot in the face, losing his left eye, and was also shot through the skull, hip, leg, ankle and ear.
In WW1 he was severely wounded on eight occasions and mentioned in despatches six times.
Having previously lost an eye and a hand in battle, Carton de Wiart, as commanding officer, was seen by his men pulling the pins of grenades out with his teeth and hurling them with his one good arm during the Battle of the Somme, winning the Victoria Cross.

But that was just the beginning. Carton de Wiart’s plane was shot down in World War II and he spent two years in an Italian POW camp, from which he escaped once, even though he was in his sixties by then. Read the amazing story of the soldier who returned to battle again and again at BBC Magazine.