I had just turned twenty-two <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I found out that I might be conscripted <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did not want to go to war <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And die the victim of a snipers bullet <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a dull wet Wednesday afternoon <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also had no problem with the Germans <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having visited the country frequently<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All my friends were in a panic to join up <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was not for me as I felt I was worth more <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I considered registering as an objector <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I would be locked up away from Ruth <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My father owned a farm in North Wales <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps I could get involved in essential war work <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that would be long shot as people knew <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That I could not tell a farm from a frog <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dad was not even a farmer <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which was worked by another family<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The time was getting nearer which troubled me<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I accepted an invitation from Rupert Kerr <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To stay on his estate in Somerset <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would give me time to think clearly <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the visit changed my life <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And accounts for my now noticeable limp <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whilst there I chatted with Rupert <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who said that his father night be able <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To pull a few strings and get me a cushy posting <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was an option but I was still nervous <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As even people with cushy postings risked being killed <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was almost envious of Rupert who suffered from epilepsy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However on the day before I returned home I had an accident <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It all started so quietly as over breakfast Millicent <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Informed both of us that she would not be able to go rabbit hunting <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But she still had plans to make a rabbit stew that evening <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She noted that there was a problem as no rabbit equalled no stew <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be truthful I disliked killing rabbits as they never did me any harm <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Millicent’s Rabbit Stews were legendary so I gave in <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that was the decision that possibly saved my life <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To put it bluntly I managed to blow part of my foot off <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tripped over a tree root and grievously injured myself <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country lost interest in me which was to my liking <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent a considerable time in a wheelchair and was quite useless <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The war passed me by without so much as a bang <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I became a teacher at a small public school in Norfolk <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And married Ruth when the hostilities faded<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We lived happily in a cottage next to a rural railway<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I soon discovered a once hidden love for trains<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I still limped which always reminded me <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of how lucky I had been or unlucky as some might say <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My disablement also put me off rabbit stew for life <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had just turned twenty-two When I found out that I might be conscripted I did not want to go to war And die the victim of a snipers bullet On a dull wet Wednesday afternoon I also had no problem with the Germans Having visited the country frequently All my friends were in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17718"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17726,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17718\/revisions\/17726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}