Legend
My Grandad on my dad's side was a legend. He was captured during WW1 when his machine gun was mortared. He was injured ,though not life-threaening. He'd already been through some horrors of war, which he would talk about when he'd had a few, but that's another story.

Apparently the Allies had tried to set up a prisoner exchange via Switzerland, whereby soldiers could be repatriated. I don't know the exact details, and no doubt some pedant will correct me, but Grandad ended up in Switzerland when the scheme broke down and he was stranded there for the rest of the war.

Being a sporty type, he had trials for Berne Town football club, and got taken on as a professional, earning the equivalent of £3 per week, which was a tidy sum apparently. He stayed until the end of the war, and we still have his League and Cup Winners medals proudly displayed alongside his campaign medals.

When he came home he used to regale us about how the village turned out to meet his train, and the local bobby reminded him that he still had a caution outstanding for speeding on his motorbike!
( The Lone Groover has mal des nuts., Fri 3 Jun 2011, 9:28, Reply)