TheCompleteMemoirsOfGeorgeSherston

Military Crosses which chanced to have appeared that
day. The doctor patted me on the shoulder and in-
formed me that I should be going across to England
next day. Good luck had "wangled me home". Even
now I cannot think of that moment without believing
that I was involved in one of the lesser miracles of the
Great War. For I am certain that I should have re-
mained at Rouen if that observant and kind-hearted
doctor hadn't noticed my name among the decora-
tions. And in that case I should have been back with
the Battalion in nice time for their operations at
Delville Wood, which might quite conceivably have
qualified my name for a place on the Butley village
War Memorial.

The Hospital Ship left Rouen about midday. While
we steamed down the Seine in fine weather I lay
watching the landscape through a porthole with a
sense of thankfulness which differed from any I had
ever known before. A label was attached to me; I
have kept that label, and it is in my left hand as I
write these words. It is marked Army Form W 3083,
though in shape and substance it is an ordinary civil-
ian luggage label. It is stamped Lying Train and Ship
in blue letters, with Sick P. C/.O. on the other side. On
the boat, my idle brain wondered what P. U. 0. meant.
There must, I thought, be a disease beginning with
P. Perhaps it was "Polypipsis unknown origin". Be-
tween Rouen and Havre I devised several feeblyfunny
solutions, such as "Perfectly undamaged officer". But
my final choice was "Poorly until October".

At noon next day we reached Southampton. No-
thing could be better than this, I thought, while being

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