Morris Minor Owners Club

svenedin wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 10:30 pm
I don't know this particular story.

I didn't until relatively recently, from seeing it mentioned online in numerous accounts.

The Air Gunner tale is from his 1st Biography 'The Long Banana Skin', published in the mid 1970s, which I brought at the time.
(Remember World Books? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_Club_Associates )

The Typhoid tale wasn't in The Long Banana Skin, it's referenced as being from his 3rd Biography, 'The Reluctant Jester' published in the mid 1990s.
I've just ordered a copy of the book as I don't have it.
The online reports don't 100% match, some say he was one of two after the vaccine bottle was replaced, some say there were 3 of them affected.
They all say 1 man dies, and that Bentine was in a coma, most stating for 6 weeks, one version I've seen says 9 months!
But they all agree he was left with damaged eyesight and that lead to being removed from flying training and moving to Intelligence.

Hence why I've ordered a copy of the book to read the first hand account.

Not one of Spike's wartime stories, but he could hardly recount it through his tears of mirth.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=927688039503062

Bill_qaz wrote: ↑Tue Jan 20, 2026 6:03 pm Spike Milligan war story
The Incident: In Tunisia during WWII, Milligan's artillery battery was setting up, but the gun was not properly bedded into the ground. When fired, the recoil caused the 25-pounder to break free, jump out of its pit, and roll down a steep hill. The gun ran down the hill, narrowly missing another artillery unit's radio truck (specifically Harry Secombe's unit).
The Famous Response: Moments later, a confused Spike Milligan ran down the hill, stuck his head into the tent of the nearby soldiers, and asked in his "Eccles" voice, "Has anyone seen a gun?".The Meeting: Harry Secombe, who was in the tent, reportedly replied, "What colour?". This incident marked the beginning of a long friendship between the two future Goon

wonderful

Extract from his book:

"I had in fact been given the cultures of typhus
tetanus typhoid and paratyphoid at one and
the same time. It is a miracle that I survived.
Apparently the new bottle of 'serum' had not
been properly heat-treated^ which I believe was
the method by which these serums were obtained
from the live cultures."

mobylette wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 12:37 pm Extract from his book:

"I had in fact been given the cultures of typhus
tetanus typhoid and paratyphoid at one and
the same time. It is a miracle that I survived.
Apparently the new bottle of 'serum' had not
been properly heat-treated^ which I believe was
the method by which these serums were obtained
from the live cultures."

Aha! That sounds plausible but in fact it would have been the supplier of the vaccine who was at fault, not the doctor who administered it in good faith.

Stephen

mobylette wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 12:37 pm Extract from his book:

"I had in fact been given the cultures of typhus
tetanus typhoid and paratyphoid at one and
the same time. It is a miracle that I survived.
Apparently the new bottle of 'serum' had not
been properly heat-treated^ which I believe was
the method by which these serums were obtained
from the live cultures."

I'm guessing you found an online version.

I did

Les, Was that one of your Minis in the NAB 2 image?.

Yes Keith, early days, in a sorry state there !

svenedin wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 12:59 pm

mobylette wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 12:37 pm Extract from his book:

"I had in fact been given the cultures of typhus
tetanus typhoid and paratyphoid at one and
the same time. It is a miracle that I survived.
Apparently the new bottle of 'serum' had not
been properly heat-treated^ which I believe was
the method by which these serums were obtained
from the live cultures."

Aha! That sounds plausible but in fact it would have been the supplier of the vaccine who was at fault, not the doctor who administered it in good faith.

Stephen

I thought I'd posted this a couple of evenings ago, but I apparently I was unsuccessful....

So this vaccination incident covers 6 or 7 pages in the book, but essentially....
The bottle was replaced for the final 3 airmen in the queue.
They were given a combined Typhus, Tetanus, Typhoid and Paratyphoid vaccination which was live cultures, because it had not been correctly heat treated.
One man died, the other was given a medical discharge when he recovered.
Bentine does not mention any specific time in a coma, but does describe the sequence of events, including a time of near death experience/hallucinations.
Eventually coming out of it ...Into my hazy vision came a face. It was the beautiful face of a young woman. My God, I thought, it's an Angel. The lovely face had an equally lovely voice. 'Hello dear' she said with a wonderful smile, 'You have been a long way'....

During it all he went from 10st to 7st, so I imagine it was some time.
They tried to give him a medical discharge; Invalided out with full pension, as his eyesight was now 6/60 (Which is basically only able to read the top line of the eye chart). But he told the Medical Officer where he could go with his Invalid pension.
"I've spent the past two years getting into the RAF and I'm not going to be slung out on my ear to cover up your medical mistakes."

Within hours he was called before the Station Commander, who realised what he was dealing with and the Invaliding out as an Airman became a Commission in RAF Intelligence, given his ability to speak French and Spanish.
His total time from incident to end of convalescence was over 6 months.