'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [77r] (153/156)
The record is made up of 1 file (78 folios). It was created in 1983?. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
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- 77 -
In the aftermath of the earlier troubled months after partition, we found ourselves
in the position of enjoying the amenities of Karachi, principally the sea bathing from
some wonderful sandy beaches beyond the harbour. Ever^Sunday morning, a motorised
dhow
A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean.
would pick up a large group of Europeans at the deejps 'and take us down one of the
creeks to the open sea at a place called Sandspit. Here in the old pre-independence
days, some enterprising spirits had erected on the fore-shore a number of surplus RAF
wooden aircraft crates. These had been placed on concrete foundations, and the interiors
cleverly fitted out into living rooms anfl even a couple of small bedrooms fitted with
bunks. With our friends and their families, we formed ourselves into small groups of
maybe seven or eight persons who took equal shares in one of the beach huts. Each
little band of hut-sharers vied with the rest in providing domestic facilities and
entertainments. Best of all, Sandspit was a paradise for children and, except on
stormy days, bathing was perfectly safe. One could also walk for miles along the
beautiful sandy beaches without meeting another soul. But the turtles also shared the
solitude; they would emerge from the sea during the night to lay their eggs above the
high water mark.
In May 1948 my wife took the children home. The oldest, David, was now eight and a half
years old, and it was high time he went to his preparatory school. Johnny, two years
younger, would have shortly to do the same. Brian, who was three years younger still,
also required a change of climate. In those days there were two alternative means of
air travel from Karachi to England. The less glamorous was the normal BOAC overland
route by land plane, but most people preferred the BOAC Sunderland Flying Boat which
flew by easy stages to Hum in Hampshire, making night stops at Bagdad, Cairo, Augusta
in Sicily, and Marseilles. The boys were thrilled at the prospect of such an adventure,
but Mary was sad to see the last of India (in the sense we had known it). Except for
our long leave in 1938, and one short spell in 1946, she had been in the country for the
last twelve years. All our children had been born out there during the war; each one
in an Indian State - Jodhpur, Hyderabad and Rajkot.
For my part I remained in Karachi for another few months. Those of us in the High
Commission who had been appointed to the British Diplomatic Service were keen to start
our new apprenticeship in the Foreign Office as soon as possible. I was the first to
be posted home, and my time came in late October 1948, when I sailed for England in
the M SS Cilicia" a ship of the Anchor Line, still under charter to the military authori
ties. Conditions had greatly improved since 1946 when I travelled home in the "SS
Franconia". This time I even had a small first class cabin to myself. I was given a
great send-off at Karachi by my friends and colleagues at the High Commission. It was
the last I was to see of the country until 1976 when my wife and I visited India in the
course of a fortnight's package tour.
About this item
- Content
This file contains a photocopy of a typewritten draft of Sir John Richard Cotton's (b 1909) memoirs of his time in the Indian military and civil service. The memoirs, which were written when the author was 'in his seventy-fourth year', cover his time in the Indian Army, at Aden, Ethiopia, Attock, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Mount Abu, Hyderabad, Rajkot (Kathiawar), the Political Department in New Delhi, and finally the UK High Commission in Pakistan.
- Extent and format
- 1 file (78 folios)
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 78; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The file also contains an original printed foliation sequence.
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- Reference
- Mss Eur F226/7
- Title
- 'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service'
- Pages
- 1r:78v
- Author
- Cotton, Sir John Richard
- Copyright
- ©From Sir John Cotton's "Memoirs & Recollections of an Officer of the Indian Political Service"
- Usage terms
- Creative Commons Non-Commercial Licence