The Burma book finally looks to be rolling forward. After several weeks of inactivity, I have received the first queries from the Editor and a urprisingly, there are only a dozen or so points for correction and/or clarification. Many are silly typos that I should have checked before submitting the initial draft, but I was expecting many more.
The next stage is to review the other points and reply. I also have discovered a couple of other quotations that I would like to add in. These I discovered quite by mistake when searching for something else, but really do need to be included. One comes from the memoir of a stretcher bearer of 1/Suffolk who served in Holland, Gordon Scriven, who makes reference in his reminiscences, to a stretcher bearer that he served with in the 8/Suffolk before he was posted to 1/Suffolk.
This ‘SB’ later went to Second Suffolk and died of wounds received during the attack on ‘Pyramid’ in May 1944 when he was bringing in a casualty. Scriven recalled him with much affection, noting that he often remarked how he was: “so hungry he could eat a horse sandwiched between two haystacks!”
The Editor has also thrown up some confusion as to the name of Captain Lee-Hunter. The citation for his Military Cross shows ‘Douglas Lee-Hunter’ crossed out and ‘Douglas Lee Hunter’ written in below. Was ‘Lee’ his middle name? Certainly all the references to him in the War Diary and the Regimental History have him down as ‘Lee-Hunter’ so which is correct?
More research needed (…and fast) but it's a good feeling to know it's all moving forward again.
