War vet, 96, shows us all how to put things into perspective

The assault of Jim Booth, a Royal Naval veteran, was indeed an depraved episode.

But there is a glimmer of hope and almost black humour in our report, on page 14, on the random hammer-wielding attack that Mr Booth suffered at his home last November, when he was left for dead. The stoical Mr Booth said of the ordeal: “Worse things happen at sea.”

His attacker, an illiterate thug called Joseph Isaacs, was found guilty of the incident yesterday and will be sentenced next week. He deserves lengthy prison spell, in the same way that a man who kicked a pregnant nurse in the back and exposed himself to her colleague in a Northern Ireland A&E department was deservedly jailed yesterday.

But while no victim of such violence could possibly be expected to be unfazed by it all, it is admirable that Mr Booth was so calm about his own terrifying experience.

Aged 96, he is a veteran of D-Day and one of the last survivors of a generation of people who were able to put everything in perspective. They saw death all around them.

We need some of their grit today, in which some people seem to be fragile in their response to the mildest adversity: cancelling going to school after a minor snowfall perhaps or claiming that they are “stressed” after some trivial incident. What a contrast to the likes of Mr Booth.