There were quite a few people who came to St Paul's Cathedral regularly. Most came on Sundays, for the services. The staff recognised most of them, gave them friendly nods in greeting and proceeded to pay no more attention to them.

One semi-regular however, did attract a little more attention -- curiosity, rather. He hardly ever came on Sunday, for one thing. Also, his face carried a great scar down his right cheek. To any other man, it would have been disfiguring. On him, it just made for a more striking appearance.But the greatest mystery was why he came. He never entered the Cathedral proper, always entering through the crypt, and staying there.

When one of the security personel followed him, the guard reported that the man had stood before the tomb of the Duke of Wellington for over an hour, only moving when other sightseers asked him to let them pass.

Another time, a guide had walked past him with a group of tourists, and when one of them had made a derogatory remark about the Duke, the whole group had been regaled with a very detailed account of Wellington's victory at Waterloo. It was the first time the guide had seen the older man so enthousiastic.

Speculation among the Cathedral's personel had it that the man was a scholar on the Napoleonic Wars who was perhaps just the littlest bit obsessed.

Then, on September 14th, 2002, he had surprised them all by coming in uniform. The insignias proclaimed him to be a colonel in the SAS. Apart from the clothing, his routine was little different. He saluted the grave, this time. He did the same, a little over a week later.

He stopped coming so often, after that.