CUT OFF FINGERS
TO PREVENT ENLISTMENT. DRIVEN TO IT BY WORRY. LONDON, November 18. At Camborne, Cornwall, a young man was charged this week with cutting off two fingers of his right hand to prevent being called up for Army service. Norman Richards (25). a butcher's assistant, was committed for trial at Penzance Quarter Sessions on a charge of having unlawfully maimed himself 'by cutting off the first and second fingers of his right hand to prevent enlistment in His Majesty’s Forces.” Richards was stated to have said: “I have been very worried lately over the international stiuation and the war. I cannot sleep. I am sorry I did it. I wish I had my two fingers back again.” A further alleged statement by him was: "Before the war broke out I talked with the chaps working with me as to who would have to join up if war came. They said: ‘You will have to go.’ I said I would rather be a conscientious objector. They said, ‘You can’t be that this time,’ and I got worried. “If I had my time to go over again I wouldn’t have done it. "I’m left-handed in most things, but I write with my right hand."
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1940, Page 6
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204CUT OFF FINGERS Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 January 1940, Page 6
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