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[Page 60]
-29-
The end of May brought a cable from Ron:- "Discharged, can you come to England". And my leave being due, my area controller suggested that I should take advantage of it to enable me to see the position of affairs.
I found that he (Ron) was due to leave the hospital at the end of the week, and being still considerably shaken, felt unequal to arranging his affairs, and grappling with the red tape of Air Ministry. This necessitated my seeking extended leave and applying for my release, for I found that it would be possible to get a passage to Australia as soon as my business was concluded. As a matter of fact it came before it was completed, for I was negotiating for Ron to accompany me and had secured the sympathetic interest of a prominent officer. In the meantime however, another department had mislaid his papers, and so when my embarkation order came, nothing definite for him had been fixed. And it was thought that he would have to return by hospital ship.
My remaining few days were most pleasantly spent. I was able to take a flying visit to Scotland to visit my cousin, and see Edinburgh and Glasgow.
My last Saturday was spent at Ivy Lodge, the home of the late Baroness Budett Coutts, [Burdett-Coutts] now maintained by her husband, just as in her life time. Nothing has been removed, and it was a delightful experience to be shown through the beautiful rooms with its antique furnishings and hangings, draped by master hands. They are never displaced for when it is necessary to have them cleaned furnishing experts come from London, so that the folds will not be disarranged.
Mr Burdett Coutts related many instances of the Baroness' great benefactions and holds in reverence the beautiful trees that were planted under her supervision, and the exquisite vistas of their landscape effect. In our Prime Minister Mr. Hughes, Mr. Burdett Coutts claimed a close connection, for he was a pupil teacher in his youth at Westminster School, which was supported by the generosity of the Baroness, and her husband was then her secretary. I found that my host's niece was Miss Ashmead Bartlett