Some thoughts from Robert Baden-Powell
“Remember it’s is going to be the business of everyone of you to keep the old flag flying, even if you have to bleed for it — just as your forefathers did before you.
We have all got to die someday; a few years more or less of our own lives don’t make much matter in the history of the world, but it is a very great matter if by dying a year or two sooner than we should otherwise do from disease we can help save the flag of our country from going under.
Therefore think it over — Be Prepared to die for your country if need be;...
If your enemy sees that you are bent on either killing or being killed, the probability is that he won’t wait to oblige you.
Dont merely talk, as some gas-bags do, about shedding the last drop of blood for your country— the difficulty with them, when the time comes, is getting them to shed the FIRST, drop of their blood.”
Scouting for Boys, 1908 Robert Baden-Powell pg 292