Learnt His Mother Was In Mental Home

Western Morning News, Plymouth, 7 November 1936

Boy disillusioned

From our own correspondent Portland, Friday. When two boys appeared before a court-martial in H.M.S. Titania at Portland to-day, on certain charges, the Chaplain of H.M.S. Nelson, flagship of the Home Fleet, in which they were serving, told the Court that one of the boys was “thrilled when he learnt he had a mother.” But, added the Chaplain, he was disillusioned and his character disoriented when he found that his mother, brother, and sister were in homes for mental defectives. The lads were ordered to receive twelve strokes of the birch each.