It happened the first time:

Private Ernest Atkins, who was on leave from the Western Front was riding a tram when he was presented with a white feather by a girl sitting behind him. He smacked her across the face with his pay book and said, "Certainly I'll take your feather back to the boys at Passchendaele. I'm in civvies because people think my uniform might be lousy, but if I had it on I wouldn't be half as lousy as you".

Sadly the majority of men with the testicular fortitude to stand up for themselves got turned into chunky bolognese in the trenches.