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I was commissioned Lt. RAMC in September 1942 and served in the First and Eighth Armies in Tunisia, Sicily and Italy, and finally commanded British Military Hospital (Sialkot and Ferozepore) in India as Acting Major.

When Regimental Medical Officer to a Bristol Regiment (The 50th RTR) I was seriously wounded by a German dive-bomber ( a Stuka) in an attack North of the River Trigno in Italy, and was evacuated as a stretcher case to the 96th General Hospital in Algiers. In beds either side of me were two officers who had been wounded at Anzio. One was Captain the Hon. Gerald Legge (now the Earl of Dartmouth) and the other — an aristocratic Grenadier Guardsman, whose name I have forgotten. The latter said to me: ‘I wish this bloody war would end soon so that we could return to our real job’. I said, ‘What’s that?’, and he replied: ‘Guarding the Palace, of course!’ in a tone implying that I was ignorant.

After four months and several operations I recovered enough to return to the front line with another tank regiment (The North Irish Horse). It was a volunteer regiment with men from both sides of the border in Ireland.

We spearheaded the fourth, and final, assault at Cassino, supporting a French/Canadian infantry brigade (the Princess Pat’s Light Infantry, the Trois Rivieres and the Vingt-douze). At the height of the battle I was sheltering in a trench we had captured from the Germans with a catholic Irish Lieutenant in the Regiment, who said to me: ‘I wish this bloody war would end soon, so we could return to fighting the real enemy’. ‘Who’s that, Jack?’ I said, and he replied. ‘the British, of course’!

Because I have an Irish Christian name he had assumed that I was sympathetic to the IRA, which he supported. Rationality is not the commonest characteristic of the Irish.

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