Horse movie revives memory

AFTER reading and hearing all the reviews of the new blockbuster film directed by Steven Spielberg, War Horse, my memory drifted back to my school days of many years ago (the late 1940s). The story involved a young farm boy on a ranch in Montana who lies about his age to enlist in the US Navy in the Second World War.

After a Japanese bombing raid on the Solomon Islands, a rancher asks the lad (who had worked with horses back in the US) to help him to save the horse.

The film was entitled Gallant Bess (a true story) starring Marshall Thompson for MGM.

I wonder do any of your many older readers remember this film after so many years?

Scarf answer

From: SN Shaw, Glebe Street, Marsh, Huddersfield.

YOUR contributor CJ Ball (Yorkshire Post, January 11) isn’t the only person not to have heard of a nightingale as a hospital item.

I did however find it defined in a 40-year-old Chambers’ dictionary as “a flannel scarf with sleeves worn by an invalid sitting up in bed” and named after Florence Nightingale: whether she originally devised the garment or not isn’t specified.

Healthy option

From: Ruthven Urquhart, High Hunsley, East Yorkshire.

SURELY we should spend increased time and effort in trying to help sick and suffering people to live more healthily and effectively, rather than die needlessly and painlessly?

Cream of crop

From: David and Wyllan Horsfall, Forge Lane, Wortley, Sheffield.

THANK you to James our milkman (Yorkshire Post, January 11). Not only does he bring milk fresh and promptly whatever the weather, but he also delivers our Yorkshire Post.