As a former
squaddie with all the ignorance and
prejudices of the uninformed youth of
the early sixties, we had the impression
that civilian officials and their
offspring regarded themselves as a cut
above us.
When I see "Jewel in the Crown"
currently being repeated on TV here
based upon the Raj Quartet by Paul Scott
it has struck me that the attitudes
between the British Castes of India was
replicated in Aden, which was in fact
the dying embers of the old colonial
empire.
As we all know,
the sun shone in Aden every day. We used
to foregather (about 20 of us) for
breakfast before setting off for work
about 0630 each day. We were often
grumpy due to over indulgence the night
before. A new arrival, after he had been
with us a while, got into the habit of
breezing in to the usually quiet dining
room and saying brightly "I see it's
turned out nice again!". We thought
this quite amusing for a while but he
persisted with the remark until it was
not so funny.
One day, he breezed in again as usual.
He made his by now familiar jocular
remark. There was a silence and then a
colleague leapt to his feet from his
meal and, with a roar, felled him with
one mighty blow from the other side of
the table.
On my last
day in Aden a friend agreed to take
some pictures of Aden for me. I was
busy packing my kit and giving away
clothing and bits and pieces and did
not accompany the photographer. On
the day of departure, one flew out
in the evening and the day for us
was not unlike what I imagine a
prisoner at the end of his sentence
goes through.
The
photographer with my little camera
was a RAMC Sgt called Tony
Warren-Nichols. If he could be
tracked down (I have tried) he
would, I imagine, have some
interesting artifacts and
recollections. He was a sort of
Public Health inspector who gave
lectures on cockroaches, latrine
siting, food hygiene etc. In this
role he visited all locations and
units in the Middle East. When I
looked at the views when I got to
UK, I remember being a tad
disappointed and wished I had gone
on the pillion of his little Honda
and done the job myself. I simply
asked him to buzz around and take
views as he saw fit and therefore I
am not in every case sure as the
view or the point from which
pictures were taken.
In The Times
on 15 Feb was the obituary to
General Sir Charles Harington
GCB,CBE,DSO,MC the C in C prior to
Admiral LeFanu. Quite interesting.
As Base Wallah soldiers we were not
called upon to do anything very
martial. However, we did have to
guard the C in C`s residence when he
was not in residence. If he was in,
then the resident infantry battalion
found the guard. As the troubles
worsened, the Infantry did it all
the time. We had to wear plimsolls
so as to not disturb the household!
The House was
reached by a road which rose with
hairpin bends. One hot sweaty
evening I received a complaint from
the house to the effect that some
vehicles were making excessive noise
gear-changing etc as they negotiated
these bends. I was ordered to detail
a man to go and sit above the bend
and note down the registration
numbers of offending vehicles in
order that the ADC could get hold of
them via the Vehicle Registration
Office on the morning following.
Later, as the
troubles got worse, the guard became
more beefed up and the infantry
blokes did 72 hour stints. The
ladies of the house then became
disturbed when their gaze fell upon
the poor squaddies performing their
ablutions - quite necessary in a 72
hour stint. Engineers were sent for
urgently to erect wicker work
screens to hide the offending view.
Admiral Sir
Michael Lefanu, on the other hand,
was much liked. He was jovial and he
liked to talk with sentries and the
squaddie in the cinema queue for
instance.
Roy Venables [RoyNVen
AT aol DOT com]
