Letters | 21 May 2015

Soldiering on

Sir: Max Hastings’s article about demobbed army officers trying for a job after the war struck a chord (‘Demob unhappy’, 16 May). The problem prevailed. I left as a captain many years later in 1978. The local vicar asked what I was going to do with myself, adding scornfully, ‘Go into commerce, I suppose. Well, even that might be a struggle for someone who knows little else other than to play cowboys and shoot Indians!’

Somewhat bemused, I asked where his Sunday collections came from if — either directly or indirectly — it wasn’t commerce. He wasn’t pleased with this. Luckily, a few months later I was hired by a British company to do some fascinating work in north Africa. I often wondered if they did so largely out of curiosity.
Greg Waggett
Clare, Suffolk

Sir: Max Hastings doesn’t mention the indecent haste with which wounded servicemen were discharged. My late father had been wounded and captured at Arnhem.