1. The march ‘Sidi Brahim’ was composed to commemorate the victory won by a regiment of chasseurs in Algeria on 24 September 1845, and the anniversary is still kept as a day of celebration by every regiment of French chasseurs. The chasseurs – originally scouts and marksmen – are the equivalent of the fast-marching British Light Infantry regiments.

1. ‘Little Tony’ was the couple’s name for the baby Dorothy was expecting. They were hoping for a boy, but when he was born, in August, ‘he’ turned out to be a girl, Mary. However, Tony Howitt (to whom the author is indebted for his father’s papers) did arrive two years later, in happier times.