I found some photos of my dad from the war

He was reading geography at Cambridge and then had to join up (he returned postwar) so most of his anecdotes were about the places he visited and the people - he was in India and later Palestine. And there was a standard joke that he didn’t like the parable of the Good Samaritan because one had shot at him. Only when he was dying did I witness flashbacks to fighting - he shouted at Mr C that he needed to make for cover, and was asking for help getting his boots off. The nurse said that she saw this with many patients of his age - had put everything out of mind for all those years but the imprint was so much that they reappeared at the last. As AC says, not sure we’d have it in us; I hope we never have to find out.

Posted By: camcan, Jun 2, 10:50:55