Gallant gentlemen who came to the rescue when a woman heading off for a Eurostar break on the continent from Hemel Hempstead left her handbag on the railway station platform have been publicly thanked.
The woman had just boarded a Euston-bound train on the afternoon of Thursday, November 14 when her moment of forgetfulness threatened to scupper her plans for a girly weekend in Brussels.
She said: “Just as the train was pulling out of Hemel Hempstead I realised I’d left my handbag on the station platform.
“Quick as a flash a gentleman sitting nearby said: ‘Don’t worry love, I’ll phone the station’.
“I asked him to let someone know I would get off at Apsley and go back by taxi. The person he was ringing didn’t answer, but undeterred he told me not to worry and he’d try someone else.
“They answered and he asked if they were at the station, could they go inside and ask someone to fetch my bag and say I was on my way back.
“My friend and I had an agonising 10 minute wait for a taxi to arrive and then a tortuously slow drive along the London Road back to the station.
“I told the station guard I’d left my bag on the platform, and he immediately produced it from beside him and when I thanked him very much he told me the person responsible was really the taxi driver who had run into the station to let him know what had happened.
“We were back on the train headed in the right direction in under 30 minutes, which was amazing.
“Obviously I said thank you at the time to the guard and the gentleman on the train, but after such kind gestures it doesn’t seem enough.
“I was and still am very, very grateful because not only would my lapse in concentration have stopped me going on my break, but would have meant my friend missing out, too.
“So, gentlemen, thank you all for your spontaneous kindness and starting the ‘season of goodwill’ nice and early in Hemel Hempstead.”