My Life by Lionel Graves. (Page 15)
During the voyage there was a huge gambling school going on nearly all the time. Crown & Anchor a game with dice, run by the crew of sailors to fleece the troops and different card games. A friend of mine, Jock Miller, later in Abbassia told me he had played – I told him, horrified, that they were cheating like mad, “I know”, he said, “so was I”.
Friday 7th Dec. Sea still quite rough. Bought 2 x 1lb tins of sweets, 21 francs per lb for Christmas presents – also a shaving brush for Dad, 25 francs. Had tinned salmon for tea. Saw no land and only one other ship. Rained quite heavily.
Saturday 8th Dec. Was a much warmer day today, plenty of foam and spray wetting the decks from the strong winds. Saw two ships, one an aircraft carrier, the other an ordinary cargo boat. There was a concert tonight, but I fell asleep after tea and missed it!
Sunday 9th Dec. Reached Port Said at 6am this morning. Hundreds of wogs swarming around in little boats, trying to sell peanuts, oranges, handbags, watches and bracelets etc at about five times its real value.
(Non-diary comment – You must excuse and forgive me, all this was before we became politically and racially correct and I wouldn't dream of using such language nowadays)
Our money had been handed in to be changed for Egyptian piastres, so I had none, but tried bringing the prices down just for fun. One asked me for a 'binny', an empty tin can so he could send stuff up. Disembarked at 6pm and went on a train for Cairo. A train! It was worse than last time, we travelled in genuine cattle trucks, 40 men or 10 horses, painted on the side and we slept, or tried to, on the floor.
At every stop wogs came along with things to sell and one came to our wagon to sell dirty postcards. After about 10 minutes haggling someone offered him 10 piastres (5 piastres = 1 shilling [5p] and 100 piastres = £1) and gave him a five franc note which he accepted in a typical , “I go, I come back” way (This was the catchphrase of a wily Eastern or Oriental Gentleman in Tommy Handley's wireless show – ITMA – Its That Man Again)
Non-diary – A crowd of Black Watch gathered toward an Egyptian selling watches on a tray, when the warning whistle blew for the train's departure one of them knocked the tray in the air and watches flew everywhere, there was a mad scramble and then they all scattered back on to the train and most of the watches had vanished. As the man ran alongside the slowly moving trucks, one grabbed his tarbush, or red fez like hat, filled it, not with water and put it back on his head. No wonder we were unpopular. The only slightly mitigating factor was, I heard afterwards, that three quarters of the watches were broken or had no works in them.
Monday 10th December. Arrived Abbassia on outskirts of Cairo at 7am Monday morning. Tidied up kit a bit, after breakfast. Went into camp shopping centre in evening, bought a few presents. Saw Parry in 3rd Dragoons, he was in Castle House at school with me, have not seen Pat Clifton yet. Had two eggs, tomatoes and chips for supper at the NAAFI. Took best battledress to be cleaned and pressed. Bought a few oranges and tangerines.
Non-diary. Winter dress was the normal battle dress, trousers and shirt sleeve order during the day and we thought this was too warm, our blood hadn't yet thinned, after a year there we realised how much cooler winter was, especially the evenings, summer dress was khaki drill tunics and shorts or long trousers. The uniforms used to be washed and ironed by dhobi wallahs who filled cheeks with water and then sprayed the garments with a fine spray and ironed them with old fashioned flat irons heated on charcoal embers. We had stocking tops which were just leg and no foot worn over the tops of boots. We also had a green plastic like waterproof bag on string to wear round the neck and carry paybacks, travel passes and documents making it harder for them to be pinched, the place was full of pickpockets. We still wore black berets with pride.
Email: Lionel Graves (lionel@graf-tek.com).
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