Blind veteran publishes a year’s worth of anecdotes

A blind veteran has put pen to paper to share 366 humorous tales, one for every day of the year plus an extra for a leap year.

Chris, 86, and from Shropshire is sharing the profits from the sale of his latest book between two charities, ourselves and the First Note Music Trust which aims to inspire a love of music in children.

‘Carry on Smiling – Quips and Quiddities to brighten each day’ is the perfect book to buy yourself for the new year. It is available to purchase on Amazon.

Chris was called up for National Service at 19-years-old. He served in the British Army with the North Staffordshire Regiment, the Prince of Wales as an infantry officer in Germany. He was then seconded to edit a divisional Army magazine due to the fact he had edited his school magazine.

Following his National Service, Chris served in the Territorial Army for 13 years and also worked in education and law. He was a headteacher for 30 years. It was Chris’ time in education that gave him many of the funny tales for his latest book. Throughout his career, he jotted down the humorous things that children said and did.

Chris has always enjoyed writing. He says:

“My first writing effort was when I was just nine years old; I wrote the history of Canterbury in just nine pages. I handed it around my family. Since then I’ve had a few stories published.”

Sight loss

Chris first noticed a problem with his sight in 2014. It was discovered he had glaucoma in both eyes and he was registered severely sight impaired in 2023. He says:

“I was driving down the motorway in 2014 when the lorry in front of me appeared to become two lorries. I rang my sons who came and picked me up and I’ve not driven since.

“I realised myself that I was going blind before I was told. My sight now is very misty, it is like looking through a lace curtain. I can no longer see details. I have always had a season ticket for Stoke City Football Club, but this is the first year that I haven’t as I can no longer follow the game.”

Our charity

Chris was already aware of our charity as a supporter. He got in touch with us following his own sight loss and began to receive our support in 2023.

Chris says:

“Not only has the charity supported me to carry on writing but I’ve also met many fantastic people, the volunteers, staff and fellow blind veterans. Everyone has been such a great inspiration to me as they all have an amazing positive attitude and never give in.”