I enjoyed your supplement celebrating the 125th anniversary of The Argus (The Argus, March 30) but found the omission of one of the most important local stories of the 20th Century lamentable.

I refer to the full-page report in The Argus on January 7, 1919.

Known as the Brighton demob protest, 7,000 services personnel from barracks in Shoreham and convalescents from Hove marched to Brighton Town Hall. The men had signed on "for hostilities only" and felt they should be allowed to go home, as the war had ended.

In other towns, there were riots and in Epsom, a policeman was shot. The government feared revolution.

But this was no revolutionary force - they just wanted to go home.

The 7,000 men sat and sang songs outside the Town Hall. The Mayor, Alderman Carden, phoned Downing Street to put the men's grievances to a friend in the war Cabinet. He also phoned the camps to insist the men were not punished and would be served a hot meal on their return. He apologised for not feeding them himself, regretting that he did not have room for them in the Town Hall.

His sensible actions defused a difficult situation.

At the time, The Argus did not print the rest of the story but my father told me what happened.

The men decided to get a train back to Hove and Shoreham. When they got to the station, they were met at the gate by a ticket collector who said "Tickets, please!". But he was ignored and the men went on to the platform, where they lined up in "entraining order" - lines of six, to fit into the individual carriage layout.

As the train arrived, so did the stationmaster, who told the train driver: "You can't take these men, they are rioters and have no tickets."

A demobbed sergeant then stepped forward and addressed his fellow soldiers: "All train drivers and firemen, two paces forward-march!"

About 20 experienced railwaymen stepped forward. "Well," he said to the driver, "will you drive the train or will we?"

The men got their train and most were sent home within weeks.

Brighton Museum contains a faded photo of the stationmaster standing by a pile of stretchers waiting to welcome "the gallant wounded heroes" to the town.

I wonder if it was the same man.

Mary Cole, St Leonards-on-Sea

-* 125th anniversary supplements will be published at the end of every month for the rest of the year.