"مذكرات وذكريات مسؤول في الخدمة السياسية الهندية" [و‎‎٧‎٨] (١٥٦/١٥٥)

- 78 -
I had served in India since March 1929, first in the Indian Army and then latterly as
a member of the Indian Political Service since 1934. These 192 years were, to use
a very hackneyed phrase, 'the best years of my life'. I had enjoyed it all and we had
been very happy. Indeed, I had been luckier than most as I had seen the best of two
careers - I had started life as an Indian Cavalryman in the days when Regiments were
still mounted - and had finished as a Political Service Officer. No-one could have
asked for better. I was also the last of six generations of Cottons to serve con
secutively and without a break for the last one hundred and fifty years in the service
either of the Honourable The East India (the Sirkar), or The Crown. It was a record
of which we Cottons had always been very proud, and it was largely because of this
that, in my seventy-fourth year, I have been persuaded to place on record my recollections
of my experiences in India.