'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' [‎9v] (18/118)

10 -
careful, particularly after dark, and there v/as more than one case of a
dog being taken off a verandah even when the owner was present.
we were normally on parade by 7 a.m. each morning (except on
Thursday which was more or less a holiday and we wore mufti). Parade
lasted to 9 a.m., then an hour off for breakfast, and company office or
other cnores up to 1 p.m. or later. Then lunch in the Mess, and exercise
of some sort in the afternoon.
When I first arrived my Company Commander was Major (Georgie)
Rogers. He had been commissioned the year I was born, 1912, and his
father had served in the 4th Gurkhas and came across to the 1 st in the
1880’s to raise the 2nd/lst Gurkhas. His grandfather had commanded
Dharmsala as^ a Major General, soon after the Indian Mutiny, when it had
been a much Digger oration. Georgie was a nice man, but on occasions
could be a trifle stuffy about f, temporary officers in the Great War who
had later been given permanent commissions in the Regiment". We shared
a tiny company office, with tables at right angles to each other, so close
tnat our respective chairs almost touched each other, yet he would solemnly
indite a loolscap page of "Instructions to 2 /Lt Ranee", place it in his
out-tray, call for the orderly and have him place it in my in-tray. As
ne was normally a most talkative person this was the harder to understand
^h I f SU P p ° Se he thou 8 ht “ was training for the young. He was a
~ t : linguist, having spent tnree years on attachment to the Kenalese
1 t 7 ® 13 : rSt war ’ out later °ni in the second war, when we
we.e „otn witn the Nepalese Brigade in Dehra Dun in 19kO, I found that
thaVh T y i° 0pS seemed t0 understand my modest Gurkhali more easily
Z\oTern!r- S ll: m ^ ^ th ® between classical
when in G camf S He v® had two 0 ° cker Daniels who shared his tent
cursed the sleeping dogs fordfsturbin/^faf SUddenly aW ° kS
I was well within ^ " ”7 ^slumbers ana oeat them soundly,
reasons refrain^ ^ " ’ an f aware 01 ^eir innocence but for obvious
conceal 0 ™ ^^ C “ t ’ ^ ^ P^t to it, to
company and remained a Company^Commander 6 for^os^of the J he
with the H girnent. Being constantly with the m^n who a^oke Al^ GurlSi
1 soon picked up the language and became fluent in it % l 11 1
command on parade were given in Enslish 2 y v;ords of
us on a T.E.W.T. (Tactical Exeroic^Wi^, ^-2 ' L:r5e f tne uolone l would take
meant, however, cubing back un ?he b, 1 ! 1Sr “ warfare. It
were more than ready for ^ch bv the 7 " ° Ur m 0 rnin S' s and we
u ~ l nCil b/ tne time we back. It did not, however