As the clock struck midnight and marked the beginning of 3 January 1913, his coming of age, he sat up in bed and wrote a letter to her, renewing his declaration of love and asking her: ‘How long will it be before we can be joined together before God and the world?’ But when Edith wrote in reply, it was to say that she was engaged to be married to George Field, brother of her school-friend Molly.
