大象传媒

My ship was tied up in harbour in Bombay on VE day. When travelling there we were chased out of the Clyde by subs and after eventually getting to Bombay we were told the war was over in Europe. All we were told was that we were getting free beer, but that we were not allowed to leave the boat and there was no beer on the boat!

I then went out as an officer cadet to the Indian Army. I went from Bombay to Poona and half way through my training course the Japanese packed it in and we were given two days holiday. After nine months I had to sit an exam in Urdu as I would have command of 100 troops who all spoke Urdu. They needed us there as a lot of officers who had been based in India up to that point were now demobilised.

At the age of 21 I was one of the youngest officers in the Indian Engineers, and I ended up with 400 Indian engineers under my command, I wouldn鈥檛 have got that in the British Army. I used to take my leave on the estate of the Maharajah of Datia. After breakfast my elephant would be waiting outside my door to take my about my daily business. This was the only form of transport.

I used to spend an hour every Sunday learning Urdu and as I lived there I picked it up quickly. I can still speak it, and in recent times I was in a chemist and a young boy was having a tantrum, speaking Urdu. I spoke to him and he was so astonished he stopped misbehaving immediately!

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