In the review of "Kiss me, Chudleigh": The World According To Auberon Waugh, by

[Joe Chi Minh]

William Cook in the (UK) Mail On Sunday Review, he writes:

'He saw comedy as something sublime, as the be-all and end-all. This meant he was able, quite literally to laugh in the face of death. As a young man on National Service in Cyprus, he was examining a faulty machine gun, 'and having nothing else to do, resolved to investigate it. Seizing hold of the end with quiet efficiency, I was wiggling it up and down when I noticed it had started firing. Six bullets later I was alarmed to observe it was firing through my chest, and got out of the way pretty sharpish.... My first reaction to shooting myself in this way was not one of sorrow or despair so much as wild exhilaration... The incident deprived me of a lung and a spleen, several ribs and a finger, but nothing else.'

(snip)

'When Waugh thought he was dying, he said to a tough corporal called Chudleigh, 'Kiss me, Hardy', a humorous echo of Nelson's last words, 'Kiss me, Hardy'. But as luck would have it, 'Chudleigh did not spot the historical reference, and treated me with caution thereafter.'