Lord Bonkers' Diary: Dame Agatha Mousetrap

And so another week at Bonkers Hall draws to a close. It looks like Keir Starmer is in the clear for a while, but I still wouldn't accept any invitations to stay on mysterious islands off the Devon coast if I were in his shoes.

Sunday

These days every television celebrity thinks he’s Dame Agatha Mousetrap, but there’s more to the whodunnit-writing game than meets the eye. I once had a shot at it myself; all went well until I sat down to pen the final chapter, only to find I had not included a butler among the cast of characters and thus had no murderer to reveal. 

My reason for mentioning this is that if the prime minister has been knifed by this own party by the time you read this, it will be like Murder on the Orient Express. They’ll all have had a go at him.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• One of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys
• A phone number for the Overton-Window twins
• "I’ll fetch you one up the bracket"
• A young Marines officer called Ashdown
• A strange episode
• He should ask an eagle to do it

J.W. Logan left an estate worth £13m in today's money

My hero J.W. Logan – nicknamed "Paddy Logan" for his strong support for Irish home rule – died in 1925. He had been Liberal MP for Harborough from 1891 to 1904 and from 1910 to 1916.

He left, reported the London Daily Chronicle (Monday 21 September 1925), an estate of £167,159.

According to an online inflation calculator, £100 in 1925 is worth £7,769.23 today. So, after consulting the University of Rutland's celebrated Department of Hard Sums, I can reveal that Logan left an estate worth almost £13m.

No wonder he was able to provide Market Harborough with swimming baths and sports and recreation grounds. He also bought the local paper to ensure good coverage for the Liberals - what Nick Gibb would call "impartial" coverage.

The Daily Chronicle report lists some annuities that Logan bequeathed to his staff, among them his gardener.

My suspicion is that Lord Bonkers has made similarly generous provision for Meadowcroft in his will, but is determined to become immortal – all those trips to Hebden Bridge to bathe in the spring of immortal life that bursts from the ground below the former headquarters of the Association of Liberal Councillors and all those bottle of cordial he buys from the Elves of Rockingham Forest – so it is never paid out.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: He should ask an eagle to do it

On Friday it was Peter the Painter: today it's Gandalf the Grey. You meet all sorts in Rutland.

It sounds as though Meadowcroft would have seen eye-to-eye with Hugo Dyson. Legend has it that he responded to Tolkien reading something from Lord of the Rings at a meeting of the Inklings in an Oxford pub by groaning "Oh fuck, not another elf."

Saturday

On Bonfire Night I was accosted at the village firework display by a white-bearded fellow who claimed to be a wizard. He said they were looking for a couple of chaps to trek into eastern Rutland and drop a ring into a crack that led to the earth’s molten core. Did, he asked, yours truly and my gardener fancy the job? He could guarantee that the gardener would get to meet an elf. 

I’m afraid I gave him both barrels, pointing out that the existence of a pothole that deep reflected poorly on the ward councillor. I added that I had tried taking a holiday with Meadowcroft, but he had done nothing but complain that he had to sit at the rear of the tandem and I wasn’t going to repeat the experiment. As to meeting elves, Meadowcroft was often be found chasing them out his herbaceous borders with a broom. 

My advice was that, if he was so keen to have a ring dropped down the dashed hole, he should ask an eagle to do it.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• One of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys
• A phone number for the Overton-Window twins
• "I’ll fetch you one up the bracket"
• A young Marines officer called Ashdown
• A strange episode

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A strange episode

Was Peter the Painter at the Siege of Sydney Street? Did he survive it? Was he still alive in Rutland this summer? It's possible, if he stumped up for the potion the Elves of Rockingham Forest sell.

Anyway, as the old boy says, it was a strange episode.

Friday

When I heard a few months ago that they had an “artist in residence” at Belvoir Castle, I determined at once that no Duke of Rutland was going to outdo the Bonkers. I telephoned Joshua Reynolds and Freddie van Mierlo to see if they were interested in the gig, but both told me they were too busy. Then, or so I thought, fate dealt me an ace. 

I was putting the world to rights in the Bonkers Arms that very evening, when someone introduced me to a foreign fellow by the name of “Peter the Painter”. Naturally, I engaged him on the spot and told him to turn up at the hall with his brushes the next morning. 

When he did, I was disappointed to find that he was a house painter. Nevertheless, he proved useful, tackling various jobs about the Estate. He had Advanced Views, but I’ve always found anarchists to be good company – unlike the average Labour MP – so I was happy to discuss politics with him over dinner. And then one morning he was gone, leaving a barn half painted. A strange episode.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• One of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys
• A phone number for the Overton-Window twins
• "I’ll fetch you one up the bracket"
• A young Marines officer called Ashdown

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A young Marines officer called Ashdown

It's hard to imagine Emlyn Hooson or Nancy Seear playing the shots that led to England's demise in the Perth test. Perhaps they should abandon Bazball and turn to Jezball instead.

Thursday

Talking of cricket, as we were, I remember the early years of the limited-overs game when the Liberal Party XI turned the world upside down by scoring at the then-unthinkable rate of three runs an over. The lobby correspondents dubbed our approach "Jezball" in tribute to our new leader Jeremy Thorpe. 

Our outstanding results owed much to a young Marines officer called Ashdown who proved equally adept at illicitly obtaining the opposition’s batting order before the toss and, if they threatened a successful run chase, at kidnapping their lower middle order. I often wonder what became of him.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• One of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys
• A phone number for the Overton-Window twins
• "I’ll fetch you one up the bracket"

Lord Bonkers' Diary: "I’ll fetch you one up the bracket"

Yes, what did happen to Liberal Democrat High Command to make it do a reverse ferret on ID cards? Whatever it was, the delightful Hazel Grove got a very sideways move soon afterwards. There's more about this in the Radical Bulletin section of the new Liberator (issue 432).

The derivation of Clarence "Frogman" Willcock was discussed on this blog last year, while "I’ll fetch you one up the bracket" sounds very much the sort of thing Sid James would have said in Hancock's Half Hour.

Wednesday

I don’t know about you, but I find myself increasingly confused over this identity card business. Just before Conference the usually delightful Hazel Grove told us that we should all move with the times and get one of the things; and, though an unadvertised consultation held at four in the morning in a locked church hall in Branksome came out against them, Ed Davey was very keen on the idea at his question-and-answer session at Bournemouth too. 

There, a tame journalist called for a show of hands and claimed that 110 per cent of those present had voted in favour of cards – and that despite my running round the room to vote against from at least five different seats. (This new tonic the Wise Woman of Wing mixed for me is the cat’s pyjamas!) 

Yet as soon as we got back to Westminster, everyone was launching petitions against the aforementioned cards. Faced with this confusion, I cleave to the words of the great Clarence 'Frogman' Wilcock: "I am a Liberal and if you ask to see my card again I’ll fetch you one up the bracket."

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• One of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys
• A phone number for the Overton-Window twins

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A phone number for the Overton-Window twins

So that's what Lord Bonkers was up to on Bournemouth Beach! I did wonder.

We all wish the Liberal Democrat team well, but having seen one of Lord Bonkers' early net practices with them, I'm tempted to put a fiver on the Andorrans.

Tuesday

Perhaps you saw me on the sands at Bournemouth, making notes as some of our leading lights played cricket? I am, of course, always on the look out for new talents I can invite to turn out for my own XI, but this time there was more to it than that. 

For we Liberal Democrats have been drawn in the Group of Death at next summer’s ALDE T20 competition, along with Democraten 66, Radikale Venstre and Liberals d'Andorra. 

If I am to lick a team into shape while the party copes with May’s local elections, scrutinising a full Labour legislative programme and the St Pancras Day festivities, the sooner I commence net practice the better. 

The other approach, I suppose, would be to sign up some top-hole cricketers as party members. If anyone has a phone number for the Overton-Window twins, a postcard sent c/o the National Liberal Club will find me.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• One of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys

Lord Bonkers' Diary: One of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys

The new Liberator has dropped. You can download issue 432 free of charge from the magazine's website. And that, of course, means it's time to brave another week at Bonkers Hall. 

When I first read this entry, I assumed his lordship meant that some Well-Behaved Orphans grew up to become locksmiths. I now fear that is not what he is saying.

Monday

Word has reached me that some of the backroom boys and girls at Buckingham Gate – no doubt Freddie and Fiona are to the fore – have taken to awarding our elected MPs chocolate bars if they judge them to have done particularly well. I should not have put up with such patronising treatment in 1906, nor, I wager, would anyone else on our benches. 

It reminds me of the time when the then Matron at my Home for Well-Behaved Orphans took to playing favourites and dishing out tuck only to a select few. I wasn’t having that, so I arranged for one of Violent Bonham Carter’s boys to call by on her afternoon off to teach the little inmates the rudiments of lock-picking. 

After that they were able to share out the confectionary fairly amongst themselves – and several WBOs were able to turn this new skill into an adult career. Perhaps I should do the same for our MPs today?

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Labour councillor defects to Tories after seeking to fight particular seat for Lib Dems, but there's something more interesting here

There's a story on MyLondon about a deselected Labour councillor in Brent who has joined the Tories after first demanding to be allowed to fight a particular seat for the Liberal Democrats.

I am reminded of the days when David Icke wanted to be the Liberal candidate for the Isle of Wight, but wasn't interested in any other seat.

The MyLondon report says:

A text message sent to the LDRS from a source at the Brent Liberal Democrat Group appears to show him expressing disappointment at the Party for not offering him the seat he demanded in Alperton. Instead, he was told "seats are not given away like sweets".

Brent Liberal Democrats Chair, Virginia Bonham-Carter, told the LDRS, whilst the party did have conversations with Cllr Rajan-Seelan about joining the party, they "decided quickly that he wasn’t acceptable to us, as he could not meet our expectations."

She added: "Labour’s decline in Brent has been clear for some time, and this latest episode involving a deselected Labour Councillor underlines how deep their problems run. Local people deserve councillors who focus on residents’ needs, not on party infighting and personal ambition."

A little research shows that Virginia Bonham Carter (no hyphen) is the daughter of Mark Bonham Carter and the granddaughter of Violet Bonham Carter.

Writing this reminded me that I knew a Tim Bonham-Carter when I lived in Kew (well, North Sheen) back in the early Eighties. I saw sad to find that he died a few years ago.

To the best of my knowledge neither he nor Virginia is related to Lord Bonkers' old friend, the London gang boss Violent Bonham Carter.

The drought revealed Rutland Water's hidden ruins and relics

Lord Bonkers isn't going to like this, because he's convinced that Rutland Water has always been there. How else, he would ask, do you explain the presence of the Monster?

But Jay Naylor made this film a month ago, before the reservoir began to fill again. He introduces it on YouTube like this:

Today we explore some long forgotten structures, forests and buildings which have laid submerged under Rutland Water for many years, revealed by drought this summer. The remains of the Burley on the Hill fish ponds, the lost buildings of Hambleton and the graves of Hambleton Wood are all on show at the moment for anyone willing to look!

Like and subscribe – just don't let Lord Bonkers catch you doing it.

Lord Chief Justice Goddard played a part in the abolition of national ID cards in 1951

With Labour returning to its ancestral love of national identity cards, the name of Harry Willcock has been heard again. He was the Liberal councillor and parliamentary candidate who, after being stopped for speeding in 1950, refused to show his identity card with the immortal words: "I am a Liberal, and I am against this sort of thing."

Highgate magistrates found him guilty of refusing to show his card - Wilcox had argued that this police power had lapsed when the state of emergency that gave rise to the relevant act had expired - but gave him an absolute discharge. He was also fined for speeding.

Despite the absolute discharge, Wilcox appealed to the High Court against his conviction for not showing his card.

At this point, as Neil Hickman tells in a letter to The Law Society Gazette, a second and very unlikely Liberal hero emerged in the shape of the ferocious lord chief justice Lord Goddard:

Let’s recall the post-war saga of identity cards. These were introduced as an emergency measure at the outbreak of World War 2. The post-war Labour government, an admirable administration but with a marked authoritarian streak, took a conscious decision not to repeal the relevant legislation; and the police routinely demanded the production of identity cards whenever they stopped someone. 

One Harry Willcock, stopped for speeding, refused 'on principle' to produce his identity card. On his appeal from the inevitable conviction before the magistrates, Lord Goddard said [Willcock v. Muckle [1951] 2 KB 844]:

'Of course, if [the police] are looking for a stolen car or have reason to believe that a particular motorist is engaged in committing a crime, that is one thing, but to demand a national registration identity card from all and sundry, for instance, from a lady who may leave her car outside a shop longer than she should, or some trivial matter of that sort, is wholly unreasonable… [and] tends to turn law-abiding subjects into lawbreakers, which is a most undesirable state of affairs. 

Further, in this country we have always prided ourselves on the good feeling that exists between the police and the public and such action tends to make the people resentful of the acts of the police and inclines them to obstruct the police instead of to assist them….'

And, though Willcock's conviction was upheld, he was not ordered to pay costs, and Goddard indicated that any future bench of magistrates obliged to convict a citizen of failing to produce an identity card should grant an absolute discharge. Identity cards were, in fact, scrapped the following year.

Neil Hickman, a retired district judge, is the author of Despotism Renewed? Lord Hewart Unburied, which I reviewed in Liberator last year. Hewart was a Liberal politician who later served as lord chief justice between 1922 and 1940.

Oh and Harry Willcock's full name was Clarence Harry Willcock, which may be why Lord Bonkers insists on calling him Clarence "Frogman" Willcock.

Carry on Sergeant, some real crimes that inspired Agatha Christie and It's Trad, Dad!

Embed from Getty Images

Three podcasts to enjoy.

Susan Calman and Mike Muncer have begun going through the Carry On films one by one. I listened to their edition on Carry On Sergeant, the very first of them. The makers had no idea they were launching a franchise and national institution, though several actors who were to become Carry On actors were in tha cast. It comes over as a gentle and likeable British film comedy.

Camper Donovan spoke to the Agatha Christie International Festival in Torquay last week and that talk is now an edition of his podcast All About Agatha. His subject was the real-life crimes that inspired some of her best-known novels and her best-known play. Regular readers of this blog will know that The Mousetrap drew upon the death of 12-year-old Dennis O'Neill in Shropshire in 1945, but Kemper gave many more examples of such inspiration that were new to me.

And Andrew Hickey has taken time off from his own magisterial music blog to talk to Goon Pod about the 1962 film It's Trad, Dad! He regards it as the best British pop music film made before A Hard Day's Night. (Lord Bonkers once claimed to have made a controversial film in the same era - I'm a Jihadi, Daddy.)

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Another Japanese attack on Poole Harbour

First, a confession: the idea of a Japanese attack on Poole Harbour is stolen shamelessly from Milton Jones. Second, some good news: earlier this year Jones announced he was taking time off to be treated for prostate cancer. but he is now  free of the disease and has begun touring again.

And with that, another week at Bonkers Hall draws to a close.

Sunday

When I heard there had been a fire at the Bournemouth International Centre, I naturally assumed it was the latest ruse by the party’s high-ups to justify the cancellation of our Autumn Conference. In recent years this gathering of the Liberal clans has been canned because of, variously, the Covid pandemic, the death of Her Late Majesty and a threatened bombing campaign by Isle of Wight Separatists. 

Fortunately, the excellent men and women of the Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Service slid down their poles with the utmost dispatch and extinguished the blaze before serious damage was done. And so, failing another Japanese attack on Poole Harbour, I shall see you all at the Liberator stall in Bournemouth.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository
• "He spelt his name with an omelette"
• Streets given over to foxes and feral cats
• A fully-funded scholarship and chauffeur-driven Rolls
• A damned shame
• The two will have to be Dealt With

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Those two will have to be Dealt With

If I were Freddie and Fiona, I would be looking to spend less time in Rutland in future: this is starting to sound ominous. At least the old boy got Meadowcroft out of clink.

Saturday

What a way to start the day! I am summoned to Oakham nick to stand bail for Meadowcroft, who has spent the night in the cells. It transpires that he was arrested in the village yesterday afternoon for carrying a dangerous weapon; this turns out to be the Japanese pruning sickle that Freddie and Fiona gave him the other day. (To be fair to the rozzers, is does look like something a samurai would take with him if he was going to have it out with another samurai.) I really think those two will have to be Dealt With.

To cool myself down, I spend the evening sharing a bush with a rather put out mallard and one of my gamekeepers and his orchard doughty. We Midland landowners have been on our toes ever since word got about that the British foreign secretary (at least he was this morning) David Lammy and America’s VP JD are in the habit of fishing without licences. 

I tend to leave questions of fishing rights on Rutland Water to my old friend Ruttie, the Rutland Water Monster, who is equally adept at dealing with lone poachers and foreign-owned trawlers, but I retain command of the lakes on the Bonkers Hall Estate. Neither bigwig puts in an appearance, but we shall be ready for them when they do.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository
• "He spelt his name with an omelette"
• Streets given over to foxes and feral cats
• A fully-funded scholarship and chauffeur-driven Rolls
• A damned shame

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A damned shame

Lord Bonkers may have hunted Trotskyists in his younger days, but there's no doubt he's on the side of the working man and woman.

Friday

Freddie and Fiona’s friends will be popping champagne corks, but I think the resignation of Angela Rayner is a damned shame. For an outfit that styles itself “the Labour Party”, the present government is notably short of people who give you the impression they’ve ever done a hard day’s work. 

And given that half the last Conservative cabinet owned more houses then even I do, they should have kept their snoots out of the affair. Who knows what close scrutiny of their paperwork would reveal?

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository
• "He spelt his name with an omelette"
• Streets given over to foxes and feral cats
• A fully-funded scholarship and chauffeur-driven Rolls

Lord Bonkers' Diary: A fully-funded scholarship and chauffeur-driven Rolls

It's puzzling that the Conservatives were so insistent that Kemi Badenoch's fantasy that she was offered a place to read medicine at Harvard when she was 16, based purely on aptitude tests, was true. They may have reasoned that she will be gone before the next general election so it's not going to matter, or perhaps they just really admire Donald Trump's and his approach to facts.

And, while it's good to see that Lord Bonkers has respect for learning, what is the old brute suggesting about Nick Clegg?

Thursday

A lunch invitation from the Professor of Hard Sums at the University of Rutland gives me the opportunity to put to bed once and for all a story that the leader of His Majesty’s opposition has been putting about. I can confirm that La Badenoch was not offered a place in his prestigious department without even having applied for one, let alone a fully-funded scholarship and chauffeur-driven Rolls. 

Next time I find myself in one of Fleet Street’s watering holes, I shall whisper this news in the ear of someone from the Manchester Guardian. Meanwhile, my efforts to discover Nick Clegg’s A level grades will go continue.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository
• "He spelt his name with an omelette"
• Streets given over to foxes and feral cats

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Streets given over to foxes and feral cats

Bertie Wooster refers to the Shakespeare's "fretful porpentine" at one one point: "Odd that he should have said porpentine when he meant porcupine. Slip of the tongue, no doubt, as so often happens with ghosts." But then, with the use of abbreviations like F&F and WBOs, this column has been owing more to Wodehouse lately.

The key is to steal from lots of different writers. Then you become original.

Wednesday

Westminster in high summer is strangely deserted – the irony is that I normally have to dodge F&F when here, but today I’ve come to the House to be sure of avoiding them. The Whitehall mandarins have left for Tuscany or the grouse moors, and the only politico you see is the odd junior minister who’s been naughty and made to stay behind. Otherwise, I find the streets given over to foxes and  feral cats.

As a result, when I chance upon a Labour peer we clap each other heartily upon the back and make a beeline for one of my clubs. Said peer then unfolds a tale that makes my each particular hair to stand on end like quills upon the fretful porpentine. (A good line that: I got it from our own Manuela Perteghella.) 

It seems the prime minister was locked in a store cupboard in No. 10 for the best part of a fortnight and had to survive on luxury biscuits and those boiled sweets they have at meetings with flipcharts. “Whatever did you people do?” I ask. “That’s the worrying thing,” replies my companion. “No one noticed for the first ten days.”

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository
• "He spelt his name with an omelette"

Lord Bonkers' Diary: "He spelt his name with an omelette"

I don't know on what evidence Lord Bonkers bases his view of Tim Farron's ambitions for St Asquith's, but he's quite insistent on the subject. He once added that he had no wish to kiss the person next to him, "unless it's Alan Beith, of course".

Tuesday

Calling by my Home for WBOs earlier today, I heard Matron tell a boy that if he didn’t eat his cabbage he would “end up like Lembit Öpik”. I suspected it was rot, but just to be on the safe side I asked Cook to be sure to serve cabbage this evening. When I explained my reasons, she sniffed and said: “I never cared for that young man. It was something to do with the way he spelt his name with an omelette.”

Cook worked her usual magic, and dinner – cabbage and all – was delicious. Afterwards I watched a news report about a church being trundled several miles across a Swedish city on a sort of giant roller skate. It occurs to me that if Farron ever gets his way at St Asquith’s – he wants to rip out the pews and have us all sing “Shine, Jesus, Shine” – I can use a similar contraption to move the old place a safe distance from the Hall. I just hope the Revd Hughes remains Sound on such matters.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Earlier this week

• Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository

And so a new week at Bonkers Hall begins. A few months ago, the old boy was on the roof of St Asquith's in case Kemi Badenoch turned up: this time we find him on the roof of the Hall itself. And he's no happier about Freddie and Fiona's weekend cottage on his estate.

Monday

You will rarely hear me defend Donald Trump. As far as I’m concerned, the sooner he visits Dallas and its notorious School Book Suppository the better. Nevertheless, I declined to join the Dutch concert of ridicule that greeted his appearance on the roof of the White House the other day, for I am often to be found on the roof of Bonkers Hall myself. 

Up here, I can keep an eye out for Well-Behaved Orphans trying to scale the wall, make sure Meadowcroft is not slacking and scan the horizon in case the Duke of Rutland is up to his old tricks. This afternoon I’m enjoying the sight of muckspreading taking place on the fields next to Freddie and Fiona’s weekend cottage. 

You may say this is unseasonal, but I’m told the pair were talking in the Bonkers Arms the other evening of taking a ”cheeky midweek break”, so it seems exceedingly well timed to me.

Lord Bonkers was Liberal MP for Rutland South West, 1906-10.

Hitler and Mussolini both claimed to have killed Nessie

The Loch Ness monster became a popular newspaper story in the 1930s. The result of this was that, in an attempt to undermine British morale, both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy claimed to have killed Nessie.

The Aberdeen Press and Journal reported in December 1940 on Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels' 'Monster Fairy Tale', saying: "It is reported from Glasgow, via Stockholm, that the Loch Ness monster has struck a mine, and its body has been found washed ashore in pieces on the west of Scotland." 

Perhaps unsatisfied with the lack of reaction from that news, a The World's News article published in 1941 reported that Italian newspaper Popolo d'ltalia claimed an Italian pilot had "bombed and destroyed a huge, serpent-like animal on the surface of Loch Ness". 

The illustration above shows Ruttie, the Rutland Water Monster. Lord Bonkers tells me she was wounded in an encounter with a U-boat, but made a full recovery.