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.