Letters: What Millennial Millie needs

Lion of London Bridge

Sir: Douglas Murray’s well-presented essay (‘Don’t be a hero’, 13 May) brings to mind the bravery of the Millwall fan Roy Larner, who fought off three knife-wielding religious fanatics in a terror attack, saving the lives of many others in the process. Stabbed eight times and in a critical condition, the ‘Lion of London Bridge’ managed to drive his attackers off. This was five years ago and yet, despite meeting all criteria for courage of the highest order, Mr Larner has yet to receive any public citation, let alone the George Cross he so obviously deserves. One wonders what is delaying this long overdue recognition.

John B. Cowper

Taplow, Buckinghamshire

Heroic admonishment

Sir: Douglas Murray reminds us of those noble citizens who ‘have a go’ when someone does something wrong. Before the Troubles ended, my father challenged a thief trying to steal a neighbour’s car on the north/south border in Fermanagh. He chased him into the post office and, despite being aged 75, he felled the thief and sat on him until police arrived. An officer said to the thief: ‘You could have been killed.’ The reply was: ‘I know, with that old boy sitting on me!’ It ended with an arrest, but also a caution for my father for injuries to the thief. He never tested his hero nerve again.

Ian Elliott

Belfast 

Salisbury’s rat

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Ian Williams

What is Xi Jinping planning?

Sir: Jon Day’s ‘Notes on… Rats’ (13 May) reminded me of a rat recovered from the skull of William Longespée, the first person buried in Salisbury Cathedral, which was found when his tomb was opened in 1791.

Long exhibited in Salisbury Museum, the rat’s fame is now assured: its desiccated remains are displayed in the cathedral alongside the tomb itself. That the rat contained traces of arsenic poison supports suspicion at the time of Longespée’s sudden death that he may have been murdered, though it is not exactly proof.