Memories of 1942 and 1943

January 1942, my dad became an officer in the Royal Indian Engineers seconded ? from his position in the railway. My Mum wept , as all her furniture and specially her piano, were sent faway for storage.

We children were not happy about losing the shortwave wireless acquired in 1941 and leaving Forbesganj and elephant transport.

We went by train to Katihar , a beautiful Railway Colony where we lived for 2 weeks while Dad went to Poona? for further training?

We absolutely loved Katihar. Boyfriends and bicycles galore .Badminton, dances and all sorts of games including a new one – called Kissing Coo-ee.

Dad returned at end of January and Mum and he went away for a few days together as he was being posted to Iraq .

Meanwhile, we stayed with friends’ in different houses and loved it. Ran wild . Trouble with Amun and Dad when they returned to find my little brother’ head cut and bandaged.

Said our goodbyes to Dad at Howrah Station, Calcutta for the 5 day railway jouney to Bangalore, via Madras. Always exciting

Stayed in Madras with Aunts and Uncles , on to Bangalore to a too small house from the military until Mum complained , we got a brand new one . Mum enrolled us in Day schools for the first time in our lives, they were Methodist , not Church of England, oh what a difference!! Curriculum different,

Walked to school. If you ate while walking through the park , the monkeys grabbed your food.

Loved Bangalore even more than Katihar . Bikes, rowing in Ulsoor Lake , truanting ( never could in Boarding school), picnicking, going every Saturday to the matinee flicks . Inventing cycle 🏑. Roller skating with board. Friends and neighbours. Just joyous. My grandpa lived with us.

Dad returned in January 1943 . The military wanted him somewhere up North in the Punjab. Mum was sad, she gave away her baby grand piano and new furniture to relatives

My two older sisters in the WAC stayed in Bangalore- full of military men and the Americans had arrived. Oldest brother a Midshipman in Navy. Only 4 of us now, unhappy to be leaving beautiful Bangalore

January 1943 farewelled by family, friends , tearful 😢 caught the train to Madras, silent and sulking 13, 15, 17 years & an 8 year old boy. Stopped in Madras and cheered up with cousins, aunts, uncles.

The whole interesting journey in reverse back to Calcutta to stay with relatives and to shop, shop, shop . Mum thought we would go back to Dow Hill GHS , Kurseong – uniforms, etc to be bought.

There were many starving , begging and dead bodies on the Calcutta streets – it was the Bengal Famine 1943 . Awful sights.

Dad said he’d been posted to Jullunder Cantonment . and we had to stop in New Delhi on the way. Another 🚂 train with the six of us. Entirely new railway line going north, different language, food and clothing.

We stopped at Benares but had no time to see the Taj Mahal , so disappointing. Mum bought more little elephants and Knick knacks for her collection. Dad bought her a Benares sari. We got some stuff too

We changed trains somewhere, maybe New Delhi, where Dad went for some briefings?

The train to Jullunder was so hot uncomfortable 😳 in spite of the carriage being ‘air conditioned’ ( a new block of ice was placed in a roof box at every station we stopped). We liked to sit under it to catch the drips.

My sister and I got so sick, we took in turns to sit in shower with water dripping over us.

Jullunder Cantonment – a military base , uniforms, horses, parades and the most gorgeous gardens. We were in a house, lovely garden. We had passwords to let us in and out. Lots of free films.

The only bad thing was the dust storms which would cover everything in dust which had to be washed by the domestic staff each time

Mum got us enrolled in a boarding school in Murree? Missouri in the Himalayas. We were outfitted in a new uniform Looking forward to going as we heard there was skiing ⛷️ and ice skating ⛸️ there.

Train from beautiful Jullunder – more hot & uncomfortable. We took a paddle wheel steamer on the Hooghly , fascinating until we saw dead bodies churning in the water.

Not to be, suddenly Dad was posted to a place called Godagiri all the way back in Bengal. Mum was so angry and so were we.

Arrived somewhere took a train to remote Godagiri. Large 2-storey house & compound. Only camp beds and veranda furniture.

Mum was in deep distress. Fortunately, we did have kitchen staff and food, a cow for milk , lychee, guava and mango trees and all sorts of vegetables growing. Quite close to the river, mosquitoes, flies, snakes.

Our stored furniture we never saw again. Mum sniffed and said ‘apparently eaten by white ants!’ adding ‘ with two legs’. We were sent military furniture. Dad was asked to form his own platoon which he did , which we kids found funny watching

The train came in once a day with ice, newspaper and ordered stores. Lots of myths and ghost stories from people around here. Many of these spirits lived in trees and haunted our house which led to fright , fun and games

Eventually, we were packed off to boarding school in Darjeeling in the middle of the year. We couldn’t buy the different uniforms for St. Michaels because of wartime shortages, and Sister Georgina decided we could use our other new school uniforms

She obviously did not understand the mentality of 13-15 year old new girls arriving in the middle of the year and being treated with derision by their classmates.

No amount of complaining ever worried my parents- grin and bear it was all you heard, nevertheless, it was horrible while it lasted.

Got over all the bother and really loved the school, the friends and some of the teachers

That was 1943 and 1942 for me , constantly changing . My brother found it so traumatic, he put it out of his head until we checked our memories. My Mum was devastated by my Dad going overseas leaving her to look after 7 children. Then upset by the changes to our traditions and way of life’s

Bangalore 1942

St Michaels School, Darjeeling staff

Classmates & friends St Michaels

Mum and Dad in Kurseong