Born in 1939 in Solihull with a barrage balloon tethered in the back garden as an air raid precaution, I gravitated to London via 6 schools.
Thomas Cumberlede & Inskip were persuaded to take me on as a junior wart thence via James Warren into the Dekhari Tea Co. A change from trainee buyer at Harrods.
Transport by SS Corfu of the P & O line to Bombay. Train to Calcutta via Allahabad with 3 window sections: glass to keep out the dust, louvres to keep out the sun, mesh to keep out mosquitos. Air conditioning via a fan in the roof blowing air onto a bucket of ice. I kid you not.
Calcutta – senior bods greet us lot ( Morris, Fortescue & yours truly ) ie Sir Richard Duckworth & Malcolm Smith.
DC 3 to Mahanbari – airstrip made out of wartime steel linked sections now used for fencing & drain covers. Flash yankee limousine takes us to the tea world.
My manager, an ace sportsman, said if I plant my stick here today there will be 2 tomorrow. That was my training course. Nothing to explain we get the tea from the low bushes not the shade trees. You share this bungalow with Ralph Kynoch a Scots shipping engineer who will teach you hindusthani so you can deal with the bearer & chaps in the mutti bungalow you will inherit shortly.
Assistant on Rytok division, factory assistant Deohall. Tennis & golf at Tingri club. |