SIR – Whenever I visit Worcester Cathedral I look for my father’s name in the cloisters.

Beneath the stained glass commemorating bellringers who died in World War I is a metal plate naming Ringers Who Served And Returned. Among them is my father.

He may not have reached the battlefields but we still think of him as a war casualty. Dad was still under training when he was thrown from his horse on Salisbury Plain.

“Who the blankety blank gave you permission to dismount?” was the response of his drill sergeant. But the hideous injuries he sustained and the horrific pain he suffered for many years was evident to his family. We have no doubt these led to him taking his life following another world war when he was still serving his country in a Civil Defence decontamination squad.

JOHN HINTON,

Worcester.