Frank Richards > Quotes

“Over each two beds was a punkah-pole with a thick piece of cloth attached to it measuring about six feet by three and hanging at a height of about two or three feet above the beds. In the centre of the room was the main punkah-pole to which the punkah-wallah attached the rope which set all the punkahs in motion when he pulled it from outside. The punkahs began working on the 29th March every year and finished on the 29th October. During the whole of this period the punkahs were in constant motion, day and night; swaying to and fro over the beds they made a gentle breeze which was most welcome in a temperature that sometimes stood at 121 in the shade.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“The dress of the native Princes contrasted oddly with the frock-coats and top-hats of the white Big Pots, who must have been sweating a bit in that strong sun. One prince had a large diamond in his turban which made our mouths water. The Corporal said that if he owned it he would immediately sell it and purchase a brewery for his own private consumption. After the guests had been presented to the Royal couple, they collected in groups, walking up and down the grounds. They all looked as solemn as owls and a few stiff drinks would have done them the world of good. If there was a refreshment-bar inside the grounds we could not see it, even from our excellent vantage-point. The Sergeant remarked that if ever he climbed the social ladder and was invited to a party like this, he would get three parts drunk before presenting himself, and would make sure of being perfectly drunk before leaving, by stuffing a quart bottle of whiskey into the tail of his frock-coat.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“Early in 1903 my company was stationed at Delhi Fort during the great Delhi Durbar held in honour of King Edward VII’s Coronation of the previous year. I cannot be sure whether it was the Duke of Cambridge or the Duke of Connaught who represented their brother the King, but whichever of the two it was, the story went around that after the native Princes had paid homage to him he remarked pointedly that from their behaviour it seemed as if somebody had been spoiling them: they did not behave in the same manner as during his last visit to India.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“Durbars come very expensive to native Princes and they are therefore quite sincere in wishing the reigning sovereign long life; and their subjects, who are more heavily taxed in Durbar years than usually, also offer the same heartfelt prayers.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“Four companies of Ghurka soldiers were encamped at Dehra Dun—a short sturdy race of men closely resembling the Japanese; they were proud of the fact that they were the highest paid of all Native Infantry. In addition to a rifle and bayonet they were also armed with a large curved knife called a Kukri, which many of them could throw accurately at a given target. The Kukri was a symbol of honour for them, and they attached much the same importance to it as what I have read the Greeks of old attached to their shields—they would rather die than lose it in battle. They came from the mountainous country of Nepal, the most truly independent kingdom in India. As a result of a treaty that Lord Curzon made with the King of Nepal, no white man is allowed to settle there except at the King’s personal invitation.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“passed the doctor with flying colours; the only comment he made was that I was a finely built lad but looked extremely youthful for my years. For instead of putting six months on to my age I had put on eighteen months: I was determined this time that if I was big enough I would also be old enough.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“The Fort had formerly been the residence of the old Mogul Emperors. Akbar, the greatest of them all, had built it and had held his court there. I have spent many an hour wandering around the beautiful buildings inside it. Not a stone’s throw from it, on the banks of the River Jumna, is the celebrated tomb called the Taj Mahal, which was built by Akbar’s grandson Shah Jehan in memory of his favourite wife. In addition to the finest craftsmen of their age, more than twenty thousand men, the majority of them slaves, were occupied for over seventeen years in building it. With the exception of the side facing the river, which from the foundation to a certain height is built of red sandstone, it is all pure white marble. The interior of the tomb with its marble screens and delicate pierced marble-work makes one amazed at the skill and patience of the workmen of old. Although the Prayer-wallah and I were hardened sinners we were also great admirers of all things that are beautiful: on many a night we left the Canteen half cut and journeyed down to view the Taj by moonlight, when it looked three times more beautiful than what it did during the day. Since the invention of cheap winter-cruises, I understand that thousands of globe-trotters go to Agra every year on purpose to see the Taj Mahal by moonlight, having been told by the steamship companies that the sight is something to dream about. But the Prayer-wallah and I found it out for ourselves.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“We were back at Agra about the middle of July. There had been no rainfall at Agra, which had a very dry climate. We were here over eighteen months before a spot of rain fell. Then it came down in sheets for nine or ten hours. Another twelve months passed by without a drop falling and then it rained again for about the same time. In spite of this absence of rain there was plenty of fresh water in Barracks: the bricked wells outside the bungalows supplied all that was needed. The natives living around Agra also depended on bricked wells for their water, and these had in some places been sunk and lined by the Government. But the agricultural natives had to water their crops from their primitive unlined wells, and if these caved in or went dry, as they often did, their crops would be ruined. The failure of these wells was one of the chief causes of the famine of 1906.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“The Prayer-wallah came from one of the Midland towns, but had been working in Lancashire when he enlisted. He was the only real pal I had in India, and there is nothing that we would not have done for each other, but the strange thing is that I have never heard a word from him or about him from that day to this.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“Each Prince had done his best to display in this procession as much wealth as he possibly could. The diamonds and precious stones that some of them were wearing dazzled my eyes as they drove slowly by in their open carriages. Their horses were magnificent and many of the carriages had gold and silver mountings. But the turnout that I admired most was a conveyance drawn by four of the cleanest racing-camels I have ever seen. Standing up in it was a Prince simply dressed in white silk with a drawn sword in one hand and a shield in the other. I do not know who he was, but he was the only one who looked a real native Prince: the others looked like stuffed and gilded peacocks.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“Whenever they held a festival the women would dress in their best robes, on which they stitched rupees. The more rupees they had stitched on, the more attractive it was supposed to make them look. I saw one favourite wife of a well-to-do man who had three hundred and fifty rupees stitched on her robes, and huge silver bracelets on her arms and ankles. She looked like a walking mint and how she carried so much weight was beyond me. Like all other women in the world she would have cheerfully carried a ton of precious metal if she thought it would make her look more attractive than those of her sex who were carrying only about fifteen hundred-weight.”
― Frank Richards , Old-Soldier Sahib

“one old man, who was called the Bacon-wallah, was always an early arrival under the large tree. He had three natives with him who carried his stuff and worked under his supervision; they seemed to be in mortal dread of him, as were all the other natives who stood at the Ration Stand. He was a shrivelled-up old chap about five feet six in height and when I first met him I could not tell whether he was a white man, a half-caste or a native. But it turned out he was white. He smoked a native pipe called a hookah or hubble-bubble: it held about an ounce of tobacco and he would sit on his haunches like a native while he was smoking it. It was common to see half-a-dozen natives in a circle, smoking and gossiping; they sat on their haunches with one hubble-bubble between them, from which each man took a few whiffs before passing it on to the next man. They smoked all kinds of stuff, including charcoal and live coke, but the old Bacon-wallah smoked our tobacco, which was very cheap. At this time there were no duties on tobacco and cigarettes, and best plug-tobacco only cost one rupee a pound. I became very friendly with the old chap, who was an old British soldier who had served under the East India Company, or John Company as he called it. He was not sure of his correct age, but thought he was knocking a hole into ninety. He once asked me when I had joined the Army. I replied, that it was the year Queen Victoria died. He smiled and said that he had enlisted in 1837, the year Queen Victoria was crowned. After twelve months’ service at home he had been sent to India and had been nineteen years in the country when the Mutiny broke out. He had taken an active part in the fighting around Meerut and I was always interested in his yarns of the Mutiny.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib

“I visited Mandalay several times, but much preferred Rangoon. Mandalay, which our First Battalion helped to capture on November 28th, 1885, is a place of many Pagodas and outside the town is a large Burmese fort with the carved palace of King Theebaw inside it. After knocking around the palaces of the Mogul Emperors, I found this carved wooden palace rather commonplace.”
― Frank Richards, Old-Soldier Sahib