29 APRIL 1995, Page 31

Poofs can fight

Sir: I served seven years in the army, of which six (1940-46) were overseas in East Africa and the Middle and Far East, and of those I was five years in an infantry battal- ion.

In Burma we had an officers' mess waiter who was a 'poor, by which I mean that he was very effeminate. My other recollection of him is that he was a model of coolness and reliability under fire.

J.H. Wiberg

11 Oakenbrow, Sway, Lymington, Hampshire