'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' [‎31v] (62/118)

Commandant. My extra duties were not very onerous but they gave me an
added interest and a small addition to my pay.
However, we were soon on the move again, back to Dargai, but this
time to live in the Fort itself. The peacocks were there, too, and we
’•messed” together while Colonel Duncan commuted from the Malakand. We
were now putting the Nepalese through very strenuous training and trying
to get them fit for real active service as opposed to mere garrison duty.
On one occasion, after a particularly strenuous day, I got home late in
the evening to find that Dizzie Peacock had produced nut cutlets as our
main course for dinner. She was a dear girl but her ideas about food were
peculiar.
Towards the end of January 19^1 I had to go to Nowshera for a
fortnight’s course, so Jane and Christopher came too. After six months in
the ’’Outposts” it was quite exciting to be in a big station again, and even
the very ordinary hotel in Nowshera seemed luxurious after the dirt and
dust of Dargai, and Jane enjoyed meeting a lot of fresh people while I was
busy attending lectures. One day we were able to go across to lunch with
the 2nd/lst Gurkhas who were now in a temporary hutted camp near Attock
about forty miles from Nowshera. Apart from John Fulton the C.O. (and his
wife) there were only four officers I knew, as most of my old friends were
on staff jobs or helping to raise new battalions. However, we had a merry
party and John Fulton promised to make another attempt to get me back to the
Regiment.
We were kept fairly well exercised in Dargai in the course of duty
but I also rode whenever I could get the time and at the end of March we
started playing polo again twice a week on the Levies’ ground at Khar, near
Chakdara. At the end of April, however, the Shere Regiment was moved up to
a tented camp at Bakrial near Abbotabad, and it was a great relief to get
into the hills again, after the heat and dust of Dargai. We had a large
marquee type tent to live in, and were able to hire a few sticks of furniture
to make it more comfortable.
In June 19^1 I was given three weeks leave and Jane and I went off to
Kashmir, leaving Christopher with Dizzie Peacock. We spent most of the time
in Gulmarg 8,000ft - 9,000ft above sea level, as the Vale of Kashmir in June
is unpleasantly hot. While there we met the Weirs whom I had not seen since
leaving Baroda in 1937* Colonel Weir had retired from the Political but
was, I think, doing some job with the Red Cross. We also, in Srinagar, saw
Bobby Howes, another Political, slightly senior to me, whom I’d last met in
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. in 1939, when there had been some talk of my relieving him
as Assistant Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in Bahrain.
Before going on leave I had been informed that I was to become Staff
Captain of the Nowshera Brigade, which was temporarily in Bannu, as once
again trouble was brewing with the tribesmen in Waziristan. I left Bakrial
on the 2nd July 1941 and reached Bannu the following evening and took over
as a ap am on t e th July, Valley Operations lasted until