THE COVENANTER
speak French,” he said. “Anyone here speak Oh my word, yes!” Believing he spoke from
French?” Naively imagining that escape deep experience we went away heartened,
was at hand, I painfully raised an arm. only to discover later that whatever benefits
“Right, you’re for cookhouse fatigues this Minden had to offer as a station, and
weekend,” came the swift response. I had they were few, free love was certainly not
walked blindly into a carefully baited trap! amongst them. I wish at this point I could
describe effectively the innate humour of
After basic training I rose to the dizzy heights the Cameronian, but it was mainly instant
of Lance Corporal, Acting, Unpaid. I could repartee which could lighten even the
have done with the pay. A National Service darkest of moments. In his Memoirs of an
recruit’s pay was 27/6d a week, which after Infantry Officer, Siegfried Sassoon recalls an
the inevitable stoppages meant £1 in the episode in 1917 when he is put in charge
hand on payday. Later I took the last draft of a 100 bombers to act as reserve for the
from the Depot to the Battalion in Kenya. We Cameronians, having just moved up into the
travelled in one of the ill-starred Comets via line after a lengthy night march in the rain
Benghazi. The Battalion, once again part of and mud during which their guides from
24 Brigade, had by then finished its odyssey another regiment had comprehensively lost
around the Middle East and was quartered their way: ‘Ruminating on the comfortless
in Muthaiga Camp on the outskirts of responsibility imposed upon me by this
Nairobi. I was posted to B Company under enterprise, I waited until nightfall. Then
Major Leslie Dow, with WO2 Jackman who a superbly cheerful little guide bustled me
had won an excellent DCM in Malaya as along a maze of waterlogged ditches until I
the company sergeant major. The Battalion found myself in a small dug-out with some
was not enjoying the happiest of times in friendly Scotch officers.’ I can easily imagine
Nairobi from a disciplinary point of view, that guide.
but, caught almost in a time warp between
the end of the Mau Mau emergency and After my National Service and a brief spell
independence a few years ahead, Kenya was back in shipping I rejoined the Battalion
undoubtedly a marvellous place to be. It as a regular officer and became Assistant
ended all too quickly and the Battalion was Adjutant to Major Jim Burrell. If 1938
on its way home by troopship, curiously had been a halcyon sporting year for the
run by the RAF. We called in briefly at Malta regiment, so was the season of 1961/62.
on a cold, grey February day. There had The Battalion won the BAOR football cup
been a debate as to whether the Battalion in a fiercely fought competition. In the
should be allowed ashore, which ended current controversy over foreign players in
with the gnomic decision that it could do so the Premier League, it is interesting to recall
provided that it was confined to a conducted that in the days of National Service each
tour of the island. Naturally the Battalion Army team was limited to two professionals.
volunteered to a man. Outside Valetta there Hockey was also played to a very high
is not much to Malta in February other standard, and although we were not known
than churches, lots of them. After half a as a rugger regiment the Battalion team
dozen churches my bus was near mutiny, reached the finals of the BAOR seven-aside
and so we headed for Valetta, as did every competition, much to the fury of more
other bus. Somewhere in the labyrinth of fancied teams. Amongst others we were
the Grand Knights’ Palace carefully laid fortunate in having Second Lieutenant
plans came unstuck, as one by one riflemen Douglas Hathorn, an Army player, at fly-
cunningly detached themselves to head for half, with Pipe Major Tom Anderson as a
the notorious Gut. Amazingly we sailed that very combative scrum-half and Lieutenant
evening only two men short. David Nisbet at hooker.
We spent a few weeks in a hutted camp A recent newspaper article about new ration
outside Edinburgh before moving to packs for the Army reminded me that the
Germany. One day I and a few other officers Battalion had carried out a cold weather trial
had to collect some things from a gnarled on a proposed new ration pack in 1962. The
stores sergeant who came from south of the rations were freeze dried and needed water
border. “My word, you young gentlemen to cook them, which was a problem as the
is lucky,” he said. “Now in France the girls weather was bitterly cold and we still had felt
gives you ****s for money, but in Germany covered waterbottles which promptly froze.
they gives you ****s because they loves it. As a member of battalion headquarters I
76
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