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. Back in the UK, he asked to be given a few months to recover from his wounds and try to relaunch what had been a promising career at the Chancery Bar. He was told his patriotic duty was to resign his commission and stop being a drain on the national resources.
Robert Davies
London SE3
Death duties
Sir: Mark Mason (‘Dead expensive’, 16 May) is dead right to highlight the funeral rip-off, but he misses a minor exaction and a major opportunity. Useful savings can be made by avoiding churches: a priest who may never have met the deceased isn’t cheap, and a church is liable to involve expensive add-ons such as choirs. The opportunity is to do something worthwhile with the money saved.
The option of a natural burial in an attractive landscape is a good alternative to the horrors of a municipal cemetery or crematorium.
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