Well, we had a friend in Canada who had enlisted over there, and when he came back, he visited one night and asked us, ‘Would we go to the Palace?’ He had booked seats for the Palace and would we like to go? We didn’t know what was on, of course, but it was a great treat for us. So we went. And when we got there everything was lovely. Vesta Tilley was on stage. She was beautifully dressed in a lovely gown of either silver or gold. But what we didn’t know until we got there was that also on stage were Army officers with tables all set out for recruiting. She introduced those songs, ‘We Don’t Want To Lose You, But We Think You Ought To Go’ and ‘Rule Britannia’, and all those kind of things. Then she came off the stage and walked all round the audience - up and down, either sides, down the middle - and the young men were getting up and following her. When she got to our row she hesitated a bit. I don’t quite know what happened but she put her hand on my husband’s shoulder - he was on the end seat - and as the men were all following her, he got up and followed her too. << less