Well it may not be pleasant but its the most posts on the thread since it opened. Very familiar to the old thread sometimes not so friendly but usually things worked out. I as I do sometimes look at things too closely but would a seventy two year old man today not have been born in 1948, and as such been seven in 1955, so why would his father be staying in Egypt whilst his family were being rushed home. I thought families were seperated in the early fifties actuall December 1954 was when I left Egypt on a boat from Port Said, a form of peace having been created. In 1955 I was doing guards in a totally different atmosphere and uniform. No KD. Funny enough I think if I got to know the young man I would quite like him, he does have a bit of jam in him you have to admire that. I apologise if my always poor math is wrong.

Re, one of the issues raised in a previous post

According to a Newspaper article published in January 1951 the War Office had ordered the evacuation of Families of servicemen and expected that this would be accomplished in four days, I can find no information on whether this happened or not. I do know that I arrived in December 1952 and the families of fellow unit members had already left. I think it's a gray area open to argument.

RE Evacuation of Families, etc.

In 1951, October I recall, Nahas Pasha, the Egyptian PM, Abrogated (cancelled) the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and all hell broke loose in the Canal Zone beginning with a mass uprising in Ismailia and elsewhere.

Prior to that, it was all serene in Ish - bars, cinemas, bazaars all flourishing. In 1950, I bought a made-to-measure suit from a tailor in Avenue Sultan Hussain - On Tick!!!!!The 1951 uprising brought an end to that happy state of affairs and prompted an almost immediate mass evacuation of Families living in Married Quarters and private rented accommodation in Arashia, etc., as described in an earlier post. Wives and kids only - daddy stayed behind!

At all British bases - about 20 plus of 'em, arms and ammo were issued to all and sundry and carried at all times by all ranks, including 18/19 year-old lads who had not handled a weapon other than a few rounds in their basic training. Self-inflicted injuries, and similar were common and at one time it was stated that the number of such injuries was higher than those inflicted by 'the enemy'!

For the next couple of years or so anti-British terrorism was wide-spread and casualties were high. By '53 things had quietened down, but the writing was on the wall, Britain's unwelcome and hated 70 year occupation of much of Egypt, later confined to the the Zone, was ending....

I speak from my own experience from mid-1950, and due to unusual circumstances, to Spring 1953, longer I believe than most. My memories of Egypt are, like the proverbial Curate's Egg, "Good in Parts.."

BB

So on the last thread used two fatalists Badger and Sharp four posts each, Charles Lewis three, and Edwin Saspatch two,cantankerous as we are old Badger and I are still applying emergency aid, Charles is contributing, and so did Edwin Saspatch. He was a bit snarky about old codgers, but thats fine, he cannae even count, but thats fine it was nice to hear from him. Have to go now to apply emergency treatment to another thread on another forum that is suffering a diminishment of health. Like Batman my work is never done.:innocent:

Dr Badger I am just reexamining this patient and finding it difficult to find the necessary vital signs, I am not prepared on my own obsrvations to declare life extinct, but in absence of any future vitalsigns it must be considered.

I’m still here.
I’m not going anywhere yet.
Too young at 87.
I live in Chichester, West Sussex.
I was in 10 BOD, Geneifa in 1955.