The case of the sentry Gordon Linsell, of the Black
Watch, who was sentenced to death by a court-martial for the murder of a German whom he shot after challenge when on duty, is strange and distressing. There was a strong recommendation to mercy, and it can hardly be believed that the sentence will be carried out. But there is another and less tragic aspect of the affair that has its interest. The Daily Express has published a letter which Linsell, who is 23. wrote to his parents. It is full of passages like this:
" Wel, Dad, I have got to tel you why I am in this guard- room. Wel, I am in for Murder, as I have kiled a Gerry Copper. . . . I mite get it cut down to manslaughter."
Is this typical of the spelling of the average National Serviceman, who has presumably had nine years' education ? Or is there some- thing peculiar to this case, as the repeated failure over the double L might suggest ? Strangely enough words like " guard- room " and " manslaughter " are spelt accurately.
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