The mantra of “death before dishonour” is woven through military history – but a new study suggests it is rooted in our DNA David Bebber for The TimesOne May evening in 1845, two men aimed pistols at each other on a beach in Hampshire. James Alexander Seton, a former cavalry officer, had been pursuing the wife of Henry Hawkey, a lieutenant in the Royal Marines, for which Hawkey branded Seton a “scoundrel”. To defend his name, Seton challenged Hawkey to a duel. That night, he perished by Hawkey’s bullet, the last Englishman to die in a duel on home soil. Death before Dishonour, a paper published last week on the website Sage Journals, investigated modern equivalents of being a scoundrel.

Source: The Times July 30, 2017 23:05 UTC