'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎62r] (123/156)

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itself to us and to our three small children and our Ayah. This time we had as bearer,
Moti Lai, a faithful Hindu who had been with me or my brother (Colonel Henry Cotton)
since my Campbellpur days. When Mary arrived from England, I went down to Bombay to meet
her, and she was delighted with our new home. I forgot to mention that we five were not
the only P.G.'s of the Benjamin’s; in due course two more arrived; one a young batchelor
ICS officer, and the other the daughter of an Indian Cavalry Officer, who had her own
job at Army H.Q. However, we spent an enjoyable last Christmas chez the Benjamins.
On New Year's Eve, I had a pleasant surprise. Sir Conrad Corfield, the Head of our
Service, came around to our bungalow to congratulate me on the award of the O.B.E.^
which would appear in the next day's Honours List. I was told that this recognised
the hard work I had put in at Baroda and Rajkot to achieve the amalgamation of the
two Residencies.
In March, at the last ceremony of its kind to take place at Viceroy's House, I received
my award at the hands of the Viceroy, Lord Wavell. Shortly afterwards, Lord Wavell
was himself superseded as Viceroy and Governor General of India by Lord Louis Mountbatten,
whom the Labour Government of the day had chosen as the man to preside over the final
dissolution of the British Raj and the establishment of the sovereign and independent
s&tes of India and Pakistan.
Before I deal with this momentous event, there is one small personal and rather amusing
story to recall concerning Lord Wavell, who had the reputation of being an extraordinar
ily wise but taciturn and reserved person. He was in the habit of taking a few hours
break each afternoon from his arduous duties to play a few holes of golf on the Lodi
Course. He would arrive at the Golf Club in his old-fashioned Rolls Royce, accompanied
by his bodyguard of detectives. But instead of making use of the facilities of the
Club House, he would change his shoes etc. both before and after his game, alongside
his car. This was of course in the nature of a precaution as acts of terrorism were
frequent during the last dangerous few months of British rule. Now, it so happened
that I had told my small sons - who would occasionally be brought to the club to
collect me at the end of my own round of golf - that the great 'Lart Sahib' had a
glass eye. They clearly did not believe me, and one afternoon, they slipped away at
the Club from my wife who had brought them down, and approached the car where the great
man was changing out of his golfing clothes preparatory to going home. Somehow or
another, they penetrated his protective cordon and engaged the Viceroy in conversation.
He patted them on the head, and asked them who they were and the names of their parents.
In fact, for a minute or two, they had him to themselves; this enabled them to inspect
his face and features most thoroughly. Later on, when I reproached them for their
presumption (their ages at the time being 8, 6 and 3), they reassured me that they had
been well and kindly received. They were however in a position to put paid to the
ridiculous story I had told them: Lord Wavell had two perfectly good eyes in his