Letter of the week
Clever boots
YOUR article on John Lobb () brings to mind my late grandfather, James Stuart Farrer. He was discharged from the army in 1917 with the rank of private, a full disability pension and a badly damaged leg that required a surgical boot. By the mid 1920s, he was sufficiently affluent to have his shoes handmade by Lobbs, which improved his mobility and made his disability less obvious. Some 50 years later, an eagle-eyed government official spotted that, despite his pension being paid, my grandfather had made no claim for any new surgical footwear. Someone was dispatched to check he was still alive and enquire why he had not presented himself for any footwear; after
