Page 259 - They Also Served
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martialled. Found guilty, he was cashiered from the army and served a year in prison – eight months in Wormwood Scrubs and the remainder in Wakefield. The four-day bombing of Le Havre cost 2,000 French lives and only 19 German. This, and the newspaper letter, led to a change in policy of indiscriminate bombing of occupied towns, resulting in civilians being allowed to leave Calais before the attack and Dunkirk being surrounded and then by-passed until the end of the war.
After his release from prison, Douglas-Home became a prolific playwright, specialising in comedies with an upper-class setting – the first, Now Barabbas, was based on his experiences in prison. His 1947 play, The Chiltern Hundreds, was made into a film starring David Tomlinson, and The Reluctant Debutante (1955) was filmed twice – starring Rex Harrison in the first, and later, under the title What a Girl Wants, Colin Firth. On the opening night of The Chiltern Hundreds, Sir Alec Douglas-Home left at the interval to attend a House of Commons vote. William had him driven back for the final curtain – so it did not look as if his esteemed brother had walked out. William Douglas-Home died in Hampshire in September 1992.
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