An Invitation to Lunch
From Ramsgate Edgar Whitehead passed on to the neighboring school at Broadstairs for an M.I. course.
Edgar was nervous. The first thing he had to do in Broadstairs was pass an Army driving test. Before the war he had been refused a driving license in England although he had a valid Rhodesian one, which he could use up to six months when on holiday in Britain. The trade test for his license included stopping a heavy lorry, with a full load, on one of the steeper hills in Broadstairs and then starting it up the slope without stalling the engine. This was chicken-feed compared with what he was used to in the Vumba where the gradients were much steeper, the road surface loose earth, and his farm truck frequently grossly overloaded. At the end of the day he had passed as a first class R.A.S.C. (Royal Army Service Corps) driver while many of his companions, who had never driven a heavy vehicle before, could only make second or third class.
There was also a stiff practical test on the mechanical side, being tested in pairs. Edgar was fortunate to be paired with an officer who, just before the war, had been in charge of a great part of the motor transport for the Anglo-Iranian Company in Iran. He knew everything about internal combustion and compression ignition engines. He answered all the questions while Edgar plied the spanner to remove parts as directed and replace. This worked well. In Rhodesia Edgar was used to simple practical jobs in maintaining a vehicle. His partner had all the theory at his finger tips– in fact, he obviously knew more than the instructor!
So by something of a wangle, Edgar was formally trade-tested as a first class R.A.S.C. driver-mechanic. (The penalty for this was to be placed near the rear when they started training in convoy exercises. However slowly the leading vehicles of a convoy travel, the ones at the back have to drive at top speed at times to keep station.)
Unexpectedly, Edgar received a letter from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association inviting him to a lunch for Commonwealth M.P.'s serving in Britain. Edgar asked for an interview with his C.O. and told him he had no special wish to go but would like his advice.
He replied, "I think you ought to attend or they will think the Army has refused leave for a House of Commons occasion."
Although in uniform, he had an interesting day back in politics. Mr. Morrison, sitting next to Edgar, the first class driver mechanic, asked him, "Do you intend to return to politics after the war?"
"Probably."
"If you don't mind an old hand giving you a bit of advice, it is useless being in politics unless you have a definite object in mind, but you must never allow anyone else to find out what it is."
(Herbert Morrison was a senior British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the House of Commons 1945-1951.)
The historical novel Whitewashed Jacarandas and its sequel Full of Possibilities are both available on Amazon as paperbacks and eBooks.
These books are inspired by Diana's family's experiences in small town Southern Rhodesia after WWII.
Dr. Sunny Rubenstein and his Gentile wife, Mavourneen, along with various town characters lay bare the racial arrogance of the times, paternalistic idealism, Zionist fervor and anti-Semitism, the proper place of a wife, modernization versus hard-won ways of doing things, and treatment of endemic disease versus investment in public health. It's a roller coaster read.
References:
- Sir Edgar Whitehead's Unpublished Memoirs, Rhodes House, Bodleian Library, Oxford University, by permission.
- Photo credit: The British Army in the United Kingdom 1939-45 H12382
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