Sunday 26th May 1940

The whole Regiment paraded in hollow square this morning whilst we watched in puzzlement from within the guard tent. The Colonel spoke – we couldn't quite catch the words – and then everyone mysteriously stood silent, looking gloomily at the ground. Next they sang “God Save the King” and when the echoes had died away in the still air, they dispersed. This rather shook us! Later we learnt that the King, far off in England, had ordered a day of National prayer. So the Regiment had assembled for the reading of a Collect and the saying of the Lord's Prayer.

“At this moment,” the Colonel had said, “A battle is raging in Europe, the result of which may or may not affect all which we hold dear...”