Elizabeth Carver was her nameElizabeth Carver was her name
“In the summer of 1937, while on the beach at Burnham-on-Sea, Betty was bitten on the foot by some kind of insect. Blood-poisoning set in and she was admitted to a local hospital. At first Montgomery, busy with manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain, failed to realize how sick she was. But as her condition worsened he was soon making regular 200-mile round trips to visit her. The septicaemia spread. Only the coming war would bring into general use the antibiotics which might have cured it. As a last resort the leg that had received the bite was amputated. Even this failed to save her. After almost two months of suffering, Betty Montgomery died in her husband’s arms on 19 October 1937. He had just read the 23rd Psalm to her. Montgomery was heartbroken. ‘I was utterly defeated. I began to search my mind for anything I had done wrong, that I should have been dealt such a shattering blow . . . my soul cried out in anguish against this apparent injustice. I seemed to be surrounded by utter darkness.’ ” – John Bierman and Colin Smith, The Battle of Alamein (ellipsis in original)