OUR GRACIOUS QUEEN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 294, 25 September 1935, Page 3

OUR GRACIOUS QUEEN

KINDNESS TO EX-SOLDIER. How a fow words .spoken by the Queen to a nerve-wrecked ex-soldier so restored his lost confidence that lie feels lie can “face the world again” was described to a press representative in London by the man himself. Before the war ho was a professional man. Since then, owing to shellshock, he has been eared for by the Ex-Sorvii-es Welfare Society, which has curative homes in Kent lor those suffering from mental' disorders and an industrial centre at Leatherhcad loi those who have recovered.. The man’s new hope came with a visit paid by the King and Queen to one of the society’s institutions. “I was attending an exhibition where we were showing electric pads and blankets made at the homes,” ho said. “I was standing alone at our stall while the chief salesman was away lor a few minutes when the Queen walked lip and spoke to me. “I was almost petrified with tear, but she smiled and asked me questions which I managed to answer. My confidence was restored and I felt that J could face the world. Having talked to the Queen, I felt that I could talk to anyone.” The incident was referred to in a London broadcast on the work of the society by an “Unknown Soldier. It may surprise Her Majesty to know, lie said, “that by speaking to one man who had shunned his fellow men foi years after the war she enabled him to recover his confidence. _ “The Queen spoke to him. At first lie was paralysed with fear, hut manarred to respond to her kindly smile and questions, with the result that to-day lie is the best salesman in the industrial centre.”