'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎10v] (20/118)

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to be able to mix with so many more people of my own age, especially the^
subalterns in the 4th Gurkhas. Tne Jullundur Club was a lively place and
there, too, one met some of the civil population, e.g. the Divisional
Commissioner ? Deputy Commissioner t Doctors, etc. and their fa.mij.ies.
There was also a cinema which was a mreat for us country bumpkins fi cm
the hills.
It was very cold at night, and except in the big mess tents we had
no form of heating, and the water in one's wash oasin would oe frozen
5 QPj_(j by morning. However, the days oeiore Cnrisumas were pleasantly warm
on the whole, much like a good English summer. There was plenty of work
to do, particularly as various people had gone on leave, and I was kept
very busy as, in addition to commanding D Company, as junior boy I had
all the odd jobs thrown at me. In January (’34) the weather began to change
for the worse and we got a lot of wind and rain. Tnat montn bhe final
rounds- of the Gurkha Brigade Soccer Tournament took place in Jullundur.
The 2nd/lst went right through until the Final when we lost a very close
game 0-1 to the 2nd/3th Gurkhas. That goal was the only one scored
against us during the tournament.
That month also some of us paid a short visit by car to Amritsar,
where we had a company on detachment in the Fort. I also went one day by
train to the IndianPolice Training Centre at Phiilaur to see one Sutton,
a school friend of mine recently out from England. It was only 25 miles
away, and that, I think, was the only train journey I ever made in India
without my bedding-roll.
In mid-February we started our nine day march over the Sewaliks
and up the Kangra Valley back to Dharmsala.
That summer Hugh Pettigrew and I had planned to go by P. & 0. on a
six week trip to China and Japan. In those days the return 1st class fare
from India was only £501 Sadly, however, his second brother, home on leave
from India, was killed in a car accident in Hove, and Hugh naturally had
to go back to comfort his mother in Sussex. I could find no one else to
go with me to Japan and in the end went to Kashmir instead, but I have
always regretted that lost opportunity of visiting the Far East.
I think that it was on the first stage of that journey to Kashmir,
going down to Pathan Kote in a very aged tourer ’’taxi”, and sitting in
the front seat by the driver, that I nearly came to a sticky end. On a
sharp bend, with a drop of several hundred feet on our left hand side,
we encountered a string of baggage camels, and one of the animals, taking
fright swung across the road and smashed its backside into the plate glass
wind screen of the car. Amazingly neither the driver nor I was-- hurt,
though my lap was littered with shards of glass. The driver drove straight
on, rather sensibly judging it was no good having a fruitless argument
with the camel driver, and anxious to get clear of the caravan. What gave
the incident even more point was that it was at that precise spot a few
weeks earlier a lorry packed with people had gone right over the M khud”