The Return of the Soldier characters

Appears from the start

Chris Baldry's cousin and the narrator, who shares Baldry Court with Chris's wife while he is away at war. Jenny loves Chris deeply and initially sees the household and its cultivated beauty through the assumptions of her own privileged class.

Appears from the start

Chris Baldry's elegant wife, left waiting at their country house while he serves in the First World War. Kitty values beauty, order, and social position, and expects her marriage to be restored when Chris returns.

Appears from the start

The heir of Baldry Court and a British officer sent home from the war with no physical wound but a severe loss of memory. He believes he is still a young man and remembers neither his marriage nor the later shape of his life.

Also known as Margaret Allington

Appears from the start

A plainly dressed woman from a modest suburban home who arrives at Baldry Court with news of Chris's condition. Fifteen years earlier, as Margaret Allington, she and Chris loved each other during a summer on Monkey Island, and she is the person his damaged memory has returned to.

Appears from the start

Margaret's husband, an unsuccessful and financially anxious man. His social position and shabby home sharpen Jenny and Kitty's first dismissive judgment of Margaret's present life.

First appears in chapter 4

The physician called to assess Chris's lost memory. He believes the condition protects Chris from a painful truth that his conscious mind refuses to face, and argues that recovery requires finding the hidden emotional cause rather than merely correcting facts.

First appears in chapter 6

The young son of Chris and Kitty, who died before the war. The adults have largely removed signs of him from the household, but his absence is central to the part of Chris's life that his memory has rejected.