OUR GRACIOUS QUEEN

Evening Star, Issue 22142, 24 September 1935, Page 12

OUR GRACIOUS QUEEN

KINDNESS TO EX-SOLDIER

How a few words spoken by the Queen to a nerve-wrecked ex-soldier so restored his lost confidence that he feels he can “ face the world again was described to a Press representative in London by the man himself. Before the war he was a professional man. Since then, owing to shell shock, he has been cared for by the Ex-Ser-vices Welfare Society, which has curative homes in Kent for those suffering from mental disorders and an industrial centre at Leatherhead for 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 r.n exhibition where we were showing electric pads and blankets made.at the homes,” he said. “ I was standing alone at our stall while the chief salesman was away for a few minutes, when the Queen walked up and spoke to me. “I was almost petrified with fear, but she smiled and asked me questions which I managed to answer. My confidence was restored, and I felt that I could face the world. Having talked to the Queen, I felt that I could talk to anyone.” , Tho 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,” he said, “ that by speaking to one mail who had shunned his fellowmen for years after the war she enabled him to recover his confidence. “ The Queen spoke to him. ' At first he was paralysed with fear, but managed to respond to her kindly smile and questions, with the result that to-day he is the best salesman in the industrial- centre.”- ; '