IN a major offensive during the Gallipoli Campaign on June 4, 1915, my father was the only officer of the Hood Battalion to survive.

He was however badly wounded and spent three months in hospital before returning to the trenches. He fought alongside the French who awarded him the Croix de Guerre avec Palm for bravery and he was mentioned in dispatches.

It was a bloody campaign which cost 130,000 lives and was probably the biggest mistake Winston Churchill ever made. However my father forgave him and he eventually considered Churchill to be not only the finest Prime Minister but the greatest Briton to have lived.

Please don't laugh but Boris is my Winston-in-waiting. Love him or loathe him Boris has proved over the past few months that he has something very special. He has already achieved things in that short time that few of us thought possible. The election result also proved that Brexit really is the will of the vast majority of the people. But to make all this happen we all need to support him and stop all the criticism and negativity that has been evident on these pages of late. We all know he's not perfect but I see him as our only chance of a better future and I hope and pray we give him the support to achieve it.

PETER COCKEY

Erpingham Road, Poole