“You’ve got a touch of pneumonia,” said the medical officer after examining the new enlistee.

“Are you sure, sir?” queried one worried man. “I have known people in civvy street to be told they have pneumonia but then to die of something quite different.”

“You are not in civil life, Samson. You’re in the Army!” thundered the medical officer. “And if you get treated in the Army for pneumonia, you die of pneumonia.”