MY BROTHER HUGH Born 5th October 1920 died 9th May 2006
In 1943 I had the sad news that my Aunt Helen whom I adored had also died in awful pain from septicaemia following an internal operation and dirty instruments and poor nursing in hospital.
During the latter part of 1944 and early 1945 I had now developed full blown amoebic dysentery which is one of the most terrible and dehibilitating diseases. I was sent to a military hospital in Delhi where they did their best but the doctors had little experience of treating tropical diseases and after the European War was over I was discharged. One curious thing though happened whilst I was in hospital in Delhi. I looked on the list of inmates and noticed a US officer with the name “Chasseaud”. It turned out that he was a son of Grandfather’s Brother Frank who had been sent off to America as a young man…..as he had been a bit of a wastrel. The story goes that Frank was sent with £30 (about 1,500 today) , £20 was sent the second month, and £10 the one after that. Soon he sent a cable “please send some cash. STARVING” to which he got a reply “STARVE”…..Frank started washing dishes and soon ended up with a chain of hotels….so the treatment worked!
Once de-mobbed in Ceylon I was treated for my dysentery by a very experienced old colonial doctor and within a few weeks under his care had put on 10bs in weight and had got my strength back.
I returned to GlenAlpin and Percy Will who was delighted to see me back, I was still weak but he gave me charge of the main division and a rubber estate to run. I knew nothing of rubber, but he said I would soon learn. One evening the head clerk who was walking from bus stop back to his bungalow got bitten by a snake (Russell,s Viper) that are deadly. He told me and immediately arranged for him to have transport to go to Badulla Hospital which was well equipped, but he refused.
“ This is an Eastern affliction, and Western Hospitals are useless in treating this sort of problem” Instead he sent for the local Veddah Mahatiya or Sinhalese Ayurvedic Doctor. He came and tightly bound an black semi-porous stone to the wound which was left in –situ for a few days. The stone drew out the poison and he was quite alright afterwards!
4. Post War CEYLON Just after the war in 1945 my Father wanted me to join him to run his small estate of Hugoland which now had 250 acres of tea and had done well during the war and there were plans to shortly open a further 60 acres over a three year period. He promised me the same pay as I was getting, but said he could not do much for the first year or two and in fact cut me down to the norm for a creeper. I think the idea was that by keeping me on a tight financial rein I would not be out and about. But it had the opposite effect. I loved shooting, the low country. I also loved going down on my bike to Colombo for week-ends. There at the end of the war were a multitude of girls in the services, WRNS, VADS, ATS etc, etc. It was a paradise for a bachelor. With the palms, beautiful beaches, hotels, clubs etc. There were riotous parties and everyone had a good time with no cares, with all the Service Personnel waiting for ships to take them home to England . Mike and Mother had come back from their ordeal in Japan, I met them at the Fort Railway Station in a torrential rainstorm, after they had come across India on a 4 day train journey.……Mother tried her best to civilize me but to no avail whatever, whilst Mike spent a lot of time in Colombo trying to catch up on schooling. We would meet up for odd weekends when I was “girl hunting” in Colombo as I had at this time a red Singer Sports car which was a great catch with the girls.