MR SCAIFE reminds us the pope is German-born (Reader’s Letters September 20).

This information prompted me to recall that shortly after the First World War Armistice in 1918, my playmates and I delighted in running around chanting about how we had beaten the Kaiser’s army.

When I was older, my mother (a Londoner) told me she had actually seen the much-hated Kaiser.

He had been one of the chief mourners in Queen Victoria’s funeral procession.

Furthermore, this much-hated foreigner was seen walking alongside our new King Edward VII.

It was to be many years before I could appreciate that what my mother told me about the German emperor – our enemy – and his many visits to London was indeed true.

Ida Mary Goodrick, Woodlands Avenue, Tadcaster.