THE COVENANTER
a mule leader in Burma and was for many well. Somewhere there is a photograph of
years, until disbandment, a pillar of the the battalion officers in which a youthful
Pipes and Drums. The Cameronians feature Lieutenant Bill Rodger and Lieutenant Ian
briefly in John Master’s autobiographical Tedford feature – both of whom attended
Bugles and a Tiger, but the best book by the final officers’ dinner in Edinburgh in
far about the Burma campaign, written at May this year. It must have been an excellent
section level, is Quartered Safe Out Here by station with all the attractions of an Italian
the creator of Flashman, George Macdonald coastal city and the added bonus of being
Fraser. able to train in Austria. Rather surprisingly I
was allowed to visit for my school holidays.
My main memories then of Winston Barracks This entailed a three-day journey there and
are of the ferocious winters of 1946 and back again. I was delivered into the maw of
1947 with seemingly endless fatigue parties the Movements system at Liverpool Street
shovelling snow, and of my father’s batman, Station with a label tied to my lapel like
Rifleman Wrigley. A small wiry man, Wrigley Paddington Bear. An overnight crossing
had been a renowned regimental boxer in from Harwich to Hook of Holland, a familiar
his day, although looking at the records he route for anyone serving in Germany until
was not part of the famous 1st Battalion the advent of air trooping, was followed by
boxing team which had won the All India a two-day rail journey to Villach, a major
Cup in 1938. But seeing photographs of him railhead in what was still occupied Austria.
in fighting stance with his torso covered in Despite familiarity with bomb damage
tattoos, he was a hero to a small boy. 1938 in London, I recall being shocked seeing
had been a halcyon sporting year for the 1st Cologne flattened except for its cathedral.
Battalion in India, winning the Infantry Cup Finally, there was a coach journey down
for polo as well. One member of that polo to Trieste, which was a feast of colour and
team whom I recall visiting the Depot was sunshine after grey austerity Britain. But
Major Sir Edward Bradford. He was later to Trieste had its problems too. Typhoid was
command the Depot himself, but was then rife, and my mother was warned never to
tragically killed riding in a point-to-point buy a rabbit in the market without seeing
race. The other members of the team whom its skin, otherwise it would be a cat! The
I was to meet later in life were Lieutenant Battalion was to spend only a year there
General Sir George Collingwood, the last before sailing to Hong Kong.
Colonel of the Regiment, Major General
Henry Alexander who was to fall foul of Some years later I was working for the Ben
Nkrumah in Ghana, and Lieutenant Colonel Line shipping company, and about to be
Duncan Carter-Campbell who commanded posted to the Far East, when a small buff
the Battalion in Bahrein and Oman. form came through the post instructing me
to report to Winston Barracks or be listed
In 1948 my father took over command of as a deserter - a small surprise as National
the 1st Battalion in Gibraltar. The battalion Service was waning fast. Winston Barracks
then moved to Trieste as part of 24 Infantry as a National Service recruit was far cry from
Brigade. Trieste was something of an being the commanding officer’s son. By then
enigma. It had once been the major port for it was commanded by Major David Riddell-
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but was then Webster, with Captain Dudley Lucas as the
ceded to Italy after the First World War. At the Adjutant and Captain Donald Cameron
end of the Second World War, Tito, whose in charge of training assisted by CSM
partisans had wrested control of Yugoslavia, Mackintosh, the former Bugle Major. A week
laid claim to it and it was declared a Free after my arrival I was sitting on the floor
Territory with sectors controlled by the of the barrack room along with the other
Americans, the British and the Yugoslavs. Jan 19 members of Lynedoch Squad gingerly
Morris, the travel writer, who served there bulling my best boots; the former because
as a young cavalry officer at that time, has it had been impressed on us that only idiots
written a marvellously elegaic book about slept on their beds the night before a kit
it, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere. The inspection, and the latter because we had
Battalion was quartered in Rossetti Barracks, just been inoculated in both arms for every
which I remember as a series of large gaunt eventuality the Army could think of. It was a
buildings with a vast parade ground, shared low point in life, when in walked God in the
with 1st Battalion The King’s Own with shape of Sgt Collinson, our squad instructor.
whom the Battalion got on remarkably “ The Army is looking for volunteers who
75
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