'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎2r] (3/156)

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Like my Brothers, I was educated at Wellington College in Berkshire, where I
remained from 1922 to 1927. I was hoping to enter my Father's college at Oxford
when he died quite suddenly in India in the latter year. With his death his and
my plans had to be quickly shelved as my Mother, with four other children to
educate, could not afford my fees at the University. Instead I took the Army
Examination and entered the RMC at Sandhurst in September 1927, gaining fourth
place and a prize cadetship. Later, I was also awarded a King's India Cadetship.
I passed out fourth of my term in December 1928, and was commissioned the follow
ing month into the Indian Army. My chief distinction at Sandhurst was the award .
of the Prize for Military History, which took the shape of a sword.
I spent the first year of my service in India at Meerut in the U.P., attached
to the 1st Battalion the Dorsetshire Regiment. During this time I passed the first
two prescribed examinations in Urdu. In March 1930, I joined my Indian Cavalry
Regiment in Bolarum, the 8th King George's Own Light Cavalry. In those days, all
twenty-one regiments of Indian Cavalry were still horsed, and in fact continued to
be so until early in the Second World War. I greatly enjoyed the life of a
Cavalryman and the fellowship of by brother officers, both British and Indian.
The esprit de corpi and camaraderie of the Regiments both Cavalry and Infantry
of the Indian Army was - and I believe it still is - something quite remarkable and
unique. Joining a Cavalry Regiment like mine, whether as a commissioned officer or
as a recruit ' sowar In the East India Company army and later Indian Army, an ordinary native cavalryman or mounted cavalryman. ', was rather like becoming a member of a rather select and
exclusive club. After eighteen months in Bolarum in South India, my Regiment moved
to Mardan on the N.W. Frontier, the home of Q.V.O. Corps of Guides. I seem to
remember that we were the first non-frontier regiment ever to relieve the Guides
Cavalry in their delectable cantonement. The train journey from Secunderbad
took four or five days to reach Rawalpindi, where we detrained and where we took
over the horses of Sam Browne's Cavalry for the 150 mile march to Mardan. There was
an amusing incident as we prepared to leave the parade ground in Rawalpindi. Sam
Browne's Cavalry was a 'Sabre' Regiment, whereas mine carried lances. When the
order to 'mount* was given, the horses - being unused to the drill involving the
throwing up of a lance as the trooper swung into the saddle - took fright and large
numbers of them ignominiously stampeded. Service on the Frontier was always interest
ing and occasionally adventurous. However, although the 8th spent four years in
Mardan from 1931 to 1935, we were not directly involved in any of the several minor
operations against hostile Pathan tribesmen which took place during this period. We
were, however, used 'in aid of Civil Power' for several months during 1932, combatting
minor disorders arising out of the activities of an anti government movement, allied
to the Congress Party, known as the 'Red Shirts'. Their main preoccupation was the
incitement by intimidation of the village populations not to pay the land revenue