She waited till the dust had cleared off and groped her way down the ward with the help of an electric torch.

Reaching Private Thompson's bed, she saw lying on it Mrs.Knight who had been killed by the fallen masonry.

Private Thompson, who was unhurt beneath the body, said that when the bricks began to come down Mrs.Knight called to him to lie still and threw herself on him to protect him.

Then something heavy, he believed the stone coping of a chimney, fell on her back and she uttered one word, he thought it was a name, and was silent.

Mrs.Knight, who was the only child of the late Sir John Blake, Bart., the well-known shipowner, is said to have been one of the richest women in England.