The hospital train of the next day was crowded and the nurse in charge of my coach was named Keene. We tried in the little spare time she had to see if we couldn’t work out our genealogy and find out if we were even remotely connected, but before we did we came to the station of Étaples and then went to the Duchess of Westminster Hospital at Latouquet. Here I was operated on. A piece of Krupp’s steel was taken out of my hand and a rubber drainage tube inserted instead. The Duchess used to come round a great deal and won everybody’s affection. She used to sit on my bed and talk to me about pleasant things. So unlike many people who visit hospitals and ask the patients silly war questions, such as: “How does it feel to be wounded?” or “Which hurts more, a bayonet or a shell wound?” One exasperated Tommy, when asked if the shell hit him, said: “Naw, it crept up behind and bit me.” FINIS