 His obituaries, which are uniformly hagiographical in tone and simply repeat the information given in Alcock's entry in Who's Who, state that Alcock left school and joined the army in 1942 to fight in the Second World War as a captain in the Gurkhas.This seems unlikely, as he would have been only 16 or 17 years old at the time.In fact, he did not join the 7th Gurkha Rifles, as an Emergency Commissioned Officer, until 1944.