My innocent dad’s hair-raising story

As One of the few remaining World War ii veterans, i would like to go back to a generation before me and report the happenings in World War i, as told to me by my late father.

During that war, he served in the royal Horse Artillery and was invalided from the somme in 1916. Later, when back to fitness, he was posted to salonika, greece, with the 22nd Division, and saw action in greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and russia. He returned home in July 1919, via the Dardanelles, a narrow strait between europe and Asiatic Turkey.

Two of his stories stand out. The first one was about when his officer was killed in action and, as a result, he was given his horse to ride. The trouble was that this horse was accustomed to leading the troops when they charged the enemy.

my father was always in the second row with his comrades, behind the leader. Despite trying to restrain the horse, out of habit the horse consistently moved to the front, making my father a prime target for the enemy!

The second story concerned my dad being wrongfully accused of selling one of the Army horses to the locals. To make matters worse he was also picked out as the culprit in an identity parade before the locals!

At his court martial, he produced two sergeants to prove his innocence, by informing the court that on the day of the incident, he was serving in a different area.

The false charge was dismissed and, as a result, he was given a clean sheet on his records.

so why was he picked out of an identity parade? it transpired the real culprit had a similar moustache and, in their uniforms, they did look alike.

Had they removed their caps, the difference would have been plain to see. The guilty party was balding, while my father had a full head of hair!

Bob Hunt, Bengeo, Hertford.