´óÏó´«Ã½

This story was submitted to the People’s War site Trish Tame from Littlehampton Learning Shop and has been added to the website on behalf of Stella Porter with her permission and they understand the site’s terms and conditions.

The British Raj in India — Stella Porter’s story

I was born in 1934 so when WWII started I was 5 years old. My father was in charge of the B.B.& C.I.R railways (Bombay Borada & Central Indian Railways). There were a lot of troops coming in and out of the stations. I was sent to a boarding school in the Himalayas that was a convent run by French Canadian nuns, it was in Mt. Arbu.

I can remember the soldiers were sent to the mountains and I think they were recuperating at the time from stress type illnesses. Lots of people came from England to entertain them and occasionally the school children were invited to the hospital, there was a big hall where we could also watch the entertainers. Since then I have learnt that Archie Andrews was one of these entertainers, and I can still see him with his ‘dummy’. We were never short of food and only learnt of the rationing from the nuns.
During the wartime we had holidays over Christmas in Agra where our house looked over the Taj Mahal but we could not come back to England because of the war.
A lot of American and English troops were stationed in Agra and my mother was the Burough Memsarb (big lady) who entertained them as she had a big house and many servants so she was able to do this. She provided drinks and music to help cheer them up. She was also a very attractive lady who was full of life.
Everyone would be invited to go out on trips to see places like the Taj Mahal, Futterpour Seakri, and on the Ganges. The American Officers would bring their large command cars and load up the children and friends and take them out on these trips.
Regularly the troops would be sent off to Burma and my mother would receive information of those who had been captured or killed in action.
At the end of the war I was still in boarding school, and my uncle had to ‘stand in’ for Mountbatten who was unable to come and take the flag at the Japanese surrender of Burma.
After this Mountbatten was made Viceroy of India.
We left India in about 1948 after Independence.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.