Posted by Adam Quinan on January 12, 2006 at 13:16:45 from 72.136.51.111 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: WW I not WW II posted by Peter H on January 12, 2006 at 11:07:35:
I am curious why Peter H doesn't accept Bob Blackett's death as a result of WW1 (checks carefully).
It seems a logical explanation for his absence, the death rate of men wounded and gassed during the war was quite high and the influenza epidemic carried off a large number of youngish men, including my great uncle who survived the western front in 1915-16 and then flying lessons in the RFC only to die of flu in England a few months before the war ended.
Of course there are other possibilities, he could have left Molly and ran off with another woman, but Captain Flint's discussion with his sister during Swallowdale where he says Bob would have been proud of them. Not something you would say to an abandoned wife I think.
He could have died of some other cause, infection following an injury (as AR's father died), lot of tetanus and a host of other deadly infections in those pre-penicillin days.
Or of course he could have been a "prisoner of the Soviets" as a result of his spying activities which is where Commander Walker was when he was supposed to be in China.