The chief reason why Mr. Randolph took Sara's father under his care is because he is in the same regiment as his son and might have knowledge of his whereabouts or fate.
In the end, what we find out is that Captain Crewe had tried to help Mr. Randolph's son, according to Mr. Randolph's line "No more than you(Captain Crewe) tried to do for my son". But that still leaves one question: Is Mr. Randolph's son alive or not?
I never read the book but I'd guess that Mr. Randolph's son died in action.. something that Sara's father would have told him, after he regained his memories. Of course this is just a guess, but based on the fact that Mr. Randolph used the word 'tried'.
However, it seems to me Randolph probably had a good suspicion his son was killed, because in the final scene with Sara's dad he seems at peace, my guess would be relieved that he finally knows what happened and has closure... the not knowing would have been eating at him the entire time.
Mr. Randolph's son, as far as I was able to follow, was the boy Captain Crewe picked up during the war scene in which the smoke bombing took place. I haven't seen the movie in a while but I believe Captain Crewe puts his coat over John (the son)while trying to save him. That's why the doctors confuse Crewe for Randolph's son, John. I could be wrong but that's how I think it went
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In the scene in the trenches, Captain Crewe hears John Randolph moaning and runs over to check on him. If you listen carefully through all the war noise, you can hear Sara's father call the injured soldier Randolph. From the way John's hand was twitching from his injury and with the poison gas, I believe it is unlikely John survived his wounds.
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seemed very obvious. Randolph goes to the hospital and finds Crewe is alive but not his son. At this point he already assumes his son is dead. But he still takes in Crewe out of compassion.
shareCrewe found Randolph barely alive in the ditches (he calls him Randolph, then John so we know it was him). He tried carrying him to safety but towards the end when he succombed to the mustard gas John was nothing but a dead weight and safe to assume that he died if Crewe barely made it. Obviously Randolphes body was misindeitfied or something and he was listed as being MIA. although we as the audience know hes most likely dead his father still has no clue and so brings Crewe into his home hoping he could tell him something about what happened to his son since they were in the same regiment. I do hope they managed to find Randolphs body (I can only assume that his body was the one they identified as being Crewes)
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