'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' [‎46v] (92/118)

In the warmer weather one usually took some form of exercise in the
evening, swimming, tennis or weather permitting sailing. We had two 3-J ton
Tomtits in the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , and there were two other boats of the same class in
Manama, one being owned by Gray MacKenzies, the Shipping Agents. The Tomtits
were half decked and had a heavy metal centre board, and were very seaworthy,
having a normal crew of two, though they would take four. I had not done
much sailing before but with two boats on the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. doorstep now was the
time to start, and I was lucky enough to be taken in hand by Beardson, an
ex-yacht master, then working for Gray Mackenzies. He not only taught me
how to sail but also the rudiments of racing tactics. The best sailing
weather was when the Bharra, a North Westerly wind,was supposed to blow for
forty days, from the second week in June to about the end of July. Sir
Geoffrey Prior gave a silver cup for the best helmsman, and the four helmsmen
chosen to compete in 19^-6 were Colonel Galloway, Tilton a business man (owner
of the fourth boat) Beardson and me. We were supposed to sail four races in
each boat, as the older boats were slower than the newer ones, and although
handicaps were given it was very difficult to estimate them exactly from test
races. Regrettably, in the end, owing to the ’’exigencies of the Service”,
people going on leave and .various other factors we were never able to
complete our rather elaborate programme and the silver cup remained unwon.
At odd intervals throughout the year there were horse and camel races,
which were very popular with the local inhabitants. There was no proper race
course, just a track marked out in the Desert, some distance from Manamah,
with some temporary seating but absolutely no shade or shelter of any kind
and even by mid-April it was extremely hot. The first such meeting which
we attended was on Friday, 18th April 19^-6. Jane and the Grisewoods and all
our children came but left after about two hours but I, as one of the judges
for the horse races had to stick it out to the very end, which was about 6 p.m
by which time I felt quite exhausted. Friday was the official weekly holiday
in Bahrain, and on that particular day I had sailed in the morning, had people
to lunch at midday, been to the races in the afternoon, and then, after a
much needed bath, gone to an official "At Home” at the Belgrave’s (State
Adviser) in the evening. It was quite a relief to go quietly to the office
the following morning!
Bahrain was a great place for picnics and there were one or two small
islands off-shore where one could go by launch and get completely away from
the dust (and inhabitants) of the Main Island. The sea, however, was so full
of salt that one could sit up in the water, and when swimming one had to be
very careful of the coral reefs, which were close to the surface. It was
advisable to wear some form of footwear, because a cut or scrape from the
coral was not only painful but tended to turn septic. On the whole, therefore
most of our swimming was done in the swimming bath at the naval base in Jufair
at the oil camp in Awali or at the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , where the irrigation tank in the
garden was big enough to bathe in. The children also spent a lot of time in
our own small tank at the A.P.A’s house, but that was only 18” deep and about