'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎35v] (70/118)

started off by car and then continued by horse when the road became
impassable or non-existent. Ranger was very strong and a good hunter,
but had a very hard mouth and required a double bridle to control him#
We took part in one or two polo scurries, i.e. short races of about two
furlongs, but I thought he would do better at longer distances, and
rather rashly decided to try him out by myself on the racecourse, riding
on a light racing saddle and a snaffle. The result was not a success.
Once he got started I couldn't hold him and he carted me a good three miles
round the track before I could pull him up. The situation was not helped
by a flock of sheep which was grazing on the course at the time, but luckily
no sheep were injured. Ranger unfortunately, however, went lame, and was
not fit to run when the race day came, and thereafter I confined our sporting
activities to hunting, polo and hacking, and cross country point to points,
where his jumping ability came into play,but I never rode him on a snaffle
again.
Racing in Quetta was fuJQ and most popular with the local inhabitants.
I was one of the Stewards and found it an interesting job. On the whole
the racing was very clean and I cannot remember any really serious
misdemeanours taking place during the eighteen months I was in office.
One of my fellow stewards, and the one I remember best was "Moochoo"
Chaudhuri (later General Joy a nto Nath Chaudhuri) then a Lieutenant Colonel
in the 16th Light Cavalry and a Senior Instructor at the Staff College. He
had served with distinction in the Western Desert before coming to Quetta
and I was amazed one day when he asked me about the possibility of joining
the Political. I said he would be foolish to leave the Army as he was
obviously marked out for high promotion, and we did not discuss the matter
again but it made me realise the high regard in which the Political Service
was held, not only by the British in India but by Indians of the highest
caste and class. Moochoo himself was a Bengali Brahmin, who had been
educated at Highgate and Sandhurst, and he went on to have a most distinguished
career and ended up as Chief of Staff of the Indian Army from 1962-66, and on
his retirement became Indian High Commissioner to Canada.
On the 17th August 19^3 ou** daughter Ann Elizabeth arrived suddenly a
month before she was expected. Luckily Peggy Dredge was staying the night
with us on her return from leave in Kashmir with Allen, and did Jane's
packing for her, and I took Jane to the Lady Dufferin Hospital at 8 p.m. and
Elizabeth safely arrived only three hours later.
The Lady Dufferin Hospital was really only for Indian Purdah women,
and was staffed entirely by women but Dr (Miss) Callender took the
occasional European patient into her own house there. I did not myself
hear of Elizabeth's birth until I visited Jane the following morning at
8 a.m. on my return from my usual early morning ride round the city, as
the telephone, as luck would have it, had been out of order the previous
night. Jane and Elizabeth came out of hospital on the 2?th August but
unfortunately on the night of the 29th Jane had a bad haemorrhage and I
had to take her back to hospital where she stayed for another ten days.
Luckily she was able to have Elizabeth with her and continue to feed her.