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ОглавлениеChapter Three
1924–1940
A rriving in Liverpool in early November 1924, the family went to stay, first with the Smethursts in Claughton and then with Leonard’s family in Llandudno Junction, where the whole family gathered to meet the little children with the exception of “Granny” who had passed away, Frank, killed in the war, and Alec, working in Wembley. There was much to do and many friends to see in a lengthy holiday that was scheduled to last until the beginning of June 1925 when Leonard was due to report back for duty in India. With Dick and Alec still very young, the plan was that Muriel, who was not very well, and the children, would stay on in England to begin their formal education. This plan was made the more appealing when Leonard’s next posting was confirmed as Jubbulpore, in the central plateau of India, which was very hot, and very far from Bombay or Poona.
Leonard and Muriel visited a number of schools, but as the date for Leonard’s return to India came closer, Muriel’s health deteriorated further, to the extent that she was not able to look after the children on her own. Leonard delayed his departure, taking a further two months and twenty-two days holiday on half pay; during which the search extended to full boarding schools catering for very young children up to prep school age. Such an establishment was found in Peppard, in the south of England, and a long way from Llandudno, where Miss Cooper ran a kindergarten with boarding facilities. Muriel and Leonard agreed that Miss Cooper and her school were ideal for the boys in this situation, and they were entered for the next term.
Writing to Leonard, who was by now on his way back to India, on 9 September 1925 his father noted that: “Muriel intended to take the wee men to school yesterday. I hope she was well enough. In any case it will be a sad parting, but she must come here when able. Your loneliness must come right home to you at times and when it does, just know that those who you left behind are in good hands and take courage – I am good at giving advice but poor at experience.”
The boys started at Miss Cooper’s school at “Highlands”, Peppard Common, Henley-on-Thames on 8 September 1925, at which stage Dick was four and Alec was two but both were regarded as “manly little fellows and obedient … we think Alec a little marvel for his age.” Happily, Muriel was able to be with them when they arrived at the school. A few days later, on 13 September, Elizabeth Bunn wrote to Muriel to say that as her brother Dugald was a friend of the Wilsons in Bombay, she wanted to say that she had seen Dick and Alec at the school, and that: “your wee boys were the centre of attention … delightfully at home and as happy as could be.”
Over the next twelve months, Muriel and Leonard corresponded on their usual frequent basis, while at the same time Miss Cooper also corresponded on a weekly basis, noting that Leonard was “by far the best letter writer” of all the parents of the children at her school. Muriel herself stayed mainly with her parents in Claughton but visited Leonard’s father and family when strong enough. Writing on 1 November 1925, Leonard’s father noted that: “we have got Muriel here now and very proud to have her. She is very much better than when I was in B’head. Still she is not what I would say – her old self. She is apparently very happy with us and personally I am very happy to have her. She shows interest in all passing events, and misses you and the children, which is very natural. Muriel stays here till Monday next … goes to Peppard for Tiny’s birthday …”
Over the next months, Muriel spent her time between the two families but by the time the summer arrived in 1926, her health was weakening and in June she wrote to Leonard’s father George, admitting that her health was poor, despite the attention of Dr Forde. In July George wrote to Leonard noting that: “Muriel is not well. Since her return she has wisely or otherwise given up the rooms she took for the boys in August so they will have to holiday with the Coopers.”
On 23 July 1926 Leonard received the heart-breaking telegram:
“Muriel died today …” G.R. Wilson.
This was followed by a letter dated 10 August 1926, as usual with minimal punctuation.
“My Dear Leon,
I got your letter of 23 July, the day Muriel died, and see that you were alive to the seriousness of her illness, which I hope would mitigate the awful news when you got my wire, although the suddenness of the finish could never be expected still I am fearing the content of your next letter the wee men are being well looked after but at present it is thought better not to tell them the awful news. If you are having trouble with your expense claims you couldn’t possibly come home … I am glad she was buried in our Grave I think it was her wish … I will do what I can to help but you know I am not much good now personally. I was proud of Muriel who could not be when they knew her – she was placid and never murmured. I am so sorry for you but cheer up and all will be well … our thoughts and sympathies are with you as you know, and your trouble draws out all Wilson happening.
With love from all,
Yours
G.R. Wilson”
At this point, Miss Cooper effectively becomes the mother of the two young boys, Dick aged nearly six and Alec nearly four. She was to continue in this role for many years, keeping Leonard abreast of their development, and making some key decisions on their behalf. For example, Alec was experiencing wet nights, once in every two or three nights and “Dr Susman recommended circumcision,” but also suggested putting “some battery (galvanic) on his back, just where he thinks the muscles are – the ones that are weak and should control the bladder.” He suggested also “trying the old wife’s remedy that of a cotton reel on an elastic – the reel on the back so the child is obliged to lie on his side.” Neither of the proposed solutions worked.
Later on, in August, the boys were taken on holiday to Bucklers House, in St Austell where Alec, who was always referred to as “Tiny”, was sleeping better and was regarded as a “comical little soul”. Miss Cooper felt they could benefit from a memento of their mother. “I wonder,” she wrote to Leonard “if you have a photo of Mrs Wilson before she was ill. I think it would be so nice if the children had a really good likeness.” The holiday was spent mainly on the beach but also included a trip to the harbour at Charlestown, before returning by train to Reading.
With term starting at the end of September 1926 there was just time for a little naughtiness. The two boys, together with two others also living with Miss Cooper, laid an ambush for her when she returned home one day to find the boys “had just blacked their faces, arms and legs as black as soot … these four blackamoors dashed to the gate to meet me … took a bath full of water to clean them.”
Nora Gillett, a friend of Muriel and Leonard in India, having dropped off her daughter Kathleen at the school wrote to say that: “I saw your sons looking simply splendid … It is good to have one’s sons described as healthy English boys of the right type. I was so very sorry to hear from my husband just before I sailed that you had had news of your wife’s death. You must have had so many bad months knowing she was ill and that you could not get to her … there is nothing worse than knowing someone you love is suffering.”
Still in Jubbulpore, in the sweltering heat, Leonard, as Divisional Transportation Superintendent, was deeply involved in the aftermath of extraordinary flooding in the Madhya Pradesh area where he was based, which left rainwater more than ten inches deep over an area of two thousand five hundred square kilometres in a three-day period. This caused great disruption to train services as lines needed to be cleared of debris, dead animals and other detritus and in some areas the rails themselves needed realignment. For Leonard this was a period of great stress and effort. However, it caused much excitement for the boys when the photographs of the flooding arrived. Unfortunately, this coincided with a bout of what Miss Cooper described as a rather disobedient phase for Alec. “I think it is the baby growing up and it so often happens with small boys so full of life as Alec, but it leads to much disgrace – as he has a mania at present for climbing up on windowsills and opening windows and we are so afraid of accidents – he was found half out of a bedroom window yesterday and so went to bed at 2.30 for the rest of the day – but again this morning he was half out of another window! Please don’t refer to these episodes when writing to them as they must not feel I tell tales … Dick is much easier to punish, a word will subdue Dick and he hates to be in disgrace, but Alec is quite different – they are a very interesting couple – so different and both most affectionate.”
It was to be two and a half years before the boys were to see their father again.
Miss Cooper’s letters to Leonard were always very welcome in Jubbulpore, as were those from his father, who was deeply upset by Muriel’s passing. He undertook to deal with the burial, “in our Grave at Haybrick,” various matters of probate, and the appointment of a formal guardian – Leonard’s brother Alex. Writing on 8 September 1926 he stated that: “I can hardly realize even yet that I will not see Muriel again, she wrapped herself in our feelings while here and it is difficult to think we will not see her again in the flesh.” Then later on in the same letter, “regarding Muriel once again, I say you have lost a treasure, your loss is very acute, at the same time there are the boys to work for and your will is strong enough. Therefore, mercifully shoulder your trouble both for her who is gone and for the sake of the boys whose future is in your care.” He also noted that: “Louie wrote over a hundred letters to Muriel’s friends.”
A little while later, in early October, the boys were told of their mother’s death. “We are glad,” wrote Leonard’s father “that the wee men have been told of the death of their mother and their replies are indeed pathetic and typical of their tender years.”
Leonard stayed in India until 8 May 1929. During these long years until he returned to England on leave, the boys’ progress, good and bad, was routinely described by Miss Cooper in her almost weekly letters. A firework display on Armistice Day, a happy birthday party for Dick and later on a birthday party for Alec which he shared with Ronnie were highlights of the autumn term. The term also included a visit by Mary White who gave each boy £ 1, a trip to Reading to buy shoes for Dick and Christmas presents from Leonard, Mrs Curl and Mrs Whelen amongst others.
Christmas 1926 was spent with Miss Cooper at Highlands, and the new term saw Dick promoted from the “baby class” and the fees increase to one hundred and thirty guineas per annum. Very soon Alec was back in trouble again. Miss Cooper wrote on 23 January 1927 that: “Alec as usual has been in the wars and damaged his nose. Today he got up at rest time and mounted a chair to better whack another boy about the head – he naturally tipped the chair and away went Alec giving his head and cheek a horrible knock … you asked if he could read yet … he does not come to school and is not inclined to pick up the art of reading or writing until obliged … I fear Alec could be a difficult pupil and no young child teacher will tackle him.” On the other hand, “Dick has been moved up this term but still likes outdoors best”.
The summer holiday in 1927 was spent as usual, partly in Llandudno and partly in Thurlestone with Miss Cooper who continued to be very much “in loco parentis” and was referred to in letters as “Aunt Chris.”
Back in India, Leonard’s stint in Jubbulpore had ended and he was, to his delight, transferred back to the more familiar surrounds of Bombay, still in his role as Divisional Transportation Superintendent. This enabled him to expand his social life and take up hunting, polo and an occasional game of golf. He also had with him the charming photographs of the two boys taken by a professional photographer, A.W. Sargent, 54 Minster Street, Reading, the previous year. He continued, as he did throughout his life, to write to the boys every week, in addition to his father and to Miss Cooper.
While Leonard’s social life was much improved following his departure from Jubbulpore, a number of issues were arising in his working life. The economic depression, which affected much of the world in the 1920s, saw railway earnings generally fall from eight percent in 1918 to about three percent of capital invested in 1932. Alongside this was the rapid growth, in the early 1920s, of trade unions, with the many unions mutually hostile and divided by caste and religion. Strikes were a growing feature of the issues to be dealt with by management in what was, at that time and for decades afterwards, India’s major employer. In 1915 the Indian Railways as a whole employed about 600,000 workers, of which some 8,000 were Europeans, 10,000 Anglo-Indian, and 582,000 Indian. However, in 1924, on the recommendation of the Acworth Committee, it was agreed that railway companies (including the GIPR/EIR) would recruit 75 percent of its senior staff from India, subject to passing examinations written in English. All correspondence was conducted in English, leading to some amusing anecdotes, such as the Indian stationmaster who, requesting a pay rise noted that: “I now have to feed six adults and four adulteresses.”
As he became, both physically and in his work, closer to the senior management echelons of the GI & PR, Leonard became involved in many of these social issues as well as the professional issues including the project to electrify the railway system. The first electric trains came into service in the 1920s on the GI & PR out of Bombay, mainly into the suburbs, then expanding over the Thyll Ghat to Igatpuri to the north and east, and over the Bhore Ghat to Poona, in both cases making the route on these high gradients passable without heavy duty steam locomotives. The engines used for this newly electrified route were one thousand five hundred VDC traction engines purchased for this specific route from Cammell Laird in England, and Uerdiningenwagonfabrik in Germany.
At home in England to Leonard’s great delight a new and equally regular letter writer now emerged from Miss Cooper’s school in Dick who was in the “proper school” now and was seemingly as earnest as his younger brother was boisterous. In March 1926, in a letter dated “MCMXXVI”, he wrote that: “we went down to the cottage yesterday to hear about the boat race and Cambridge won, it was lovely. And Oxford was terribly ragged, and we drawed a picture … they started at Putney and they got to Hammersmith bridge and then they got to a marshy place called the Ait and then they came along, and they got to Barnes bridge with a train passing over it and then … they got to Mortlake where they finish, and Cambridge won.”
The summer holiday, as usual, was spent partly in the west country with Miss Cooper and her family, and partly in Llandudno. Writing from the latter Dick told of his new yacht that: “we bought for two-and-six, tea with Aunt Elsie, a visit to Grandpa, after tea, he was not feeling very well, and donkey rides.” The journey back to London was accompanied by “Miss Rielly, who left us at Euston.” From Paddington there were “four people in our carriage” to Reading where they were collected by Miss Cooper for the start of the new academic year with its range of diverse activities for the boys. Dick shared his birthday party on 26 October (when he turned eight) with a friend, fireworks on “Armistice day” with a magic lantern parade, competing for the prize of a “Waterman fountain pen” in a handwriting competition and playing netball. In the run up to Christmas Miss Cooper organised a party at which “we had a French dance called a Bourrée by Handel … galloping horses and then some songs and I played a piano solo and Christmas carols.” Then “Auntie Chris gave a shop and all the presents we bought were for Coldash Hospital.”
The new year, 1929 was to bring with it much change. As Dick noted in his letter to Leonard dated 13 January, “you will be sailing in less than four months now and I am looking forward to it very much.” Towards the end of his last term at Highlands before going on to the Earleywood Prep School in Ascot, Dick wrote that: “I had for a present from Granny (Smethurst), for Easter some chocolates and from Aunt Elsie Curl some chocolates too and a torch from Auntie Kitty … it says on the wireless that it is going to snow tomorrow. We had crockadile’s eggs which are red, but they are really hens’ eggs dyed red. Auntie gave us each a card!”
Finally, after five lonely years in India, Leonard arrived back in England in May 1929, greatly looking forward to seeing the children and the rest of his family. He was clearly going to benefit from having his own transport and to this end he acquired an Armstrong Siddeley car which gave him the freedom to visit his relatives in Wirral or Llandudno, as well as his children who remained at school until the end of the summer term, and also to take them away for the school holidays.
The holidays were spent with the family at both Llandudno and Thurlestone, the latter also with Miss Cooper, at Iffley also with Leonard’s brother Alec, with Joan and Edwin Blair who also lived in India and who were amongst Leonard’s very closest friends, and golfing in Birkenhead in Granny Smethurst’s garden. Leonard’s father took a great interest in Leonard’s work in India, a country he would never visit, and the two men, invariably dressed in jackets and ties, would spend many hours together, once the boys had gone to bed, discussing Leonard’s work on the railways and the diversity of the challenges involved. Leonard, at this stage was still a Transportation Superintendent with responsibility for the running of trains in his designated area. On his return to India in December 1929 he was to become close to the centre of the GI & PR operations, based at the “Bori Bunder” Head Office in Bombay reporting to the GI & PR Chief Engineer, before becoming the GI & PR Chief Engineer himself.
He reported back for duty on 9 December 1929, at a time when the GI & PR like most of the railway divisions, had been involved in massive development programmes which were now coming to an end. This development included the electrification of the GI & PR over the Bhore and Thal Ghats already noted, and for the Indian railway network as a whole there was, between 1924 and 1932, an increase of five thousand three hundred and sixty miles of railway track and large amounts of doubling and quadrupling of tracks to ease traffic. During this same period, the total government expenditure on new railways was Rs44.90 crores, with a further Rs122.89 crores (approximately £ 1.0bn in 2018 terms) spent on open line works, and Rs75.29 crores on renewals and replacements. Of the “open line” works, stationary equipment (roads, stations, signals, fencing etc) accounted for 70 percent of the total, with the balance being spent on mobile equipment (locomotives, passenger coaches, goods wagons etc.).
For Leonard, close to the centre of the GI & PR towards the end of this period of massive development, there was still further investment to be made but as the country (and the western world) went into the Depression, which was to last from 1930 to 1937, there was great concern that railway revenues were falling materially. Average earnings for the railways as a whole fell from Rs114.75 crores in 1926/27 to Rs97 crores between 1931 and 1934, while working expenses remained static, with the result that there was only one contribution to general government revenues (i.e., dividend) in the period 1930 to 1937.
Also, in 1929 the new station building in Bombay was opened to deal with main line traffic. The original station was known as the Victoria Terminal because it was opened on Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Day in 1887, originally to house only the main station and its related offices. Later, more buildings were erected at adjoining sites, and these building were used as a hospital during the first world war, and subsequently for offices. The new building was designed to harmonise with the old buildings and is now generally regarded as one of the great station terminals in the world from an architectural perspective.
When the new building was completed, the Victoria Terminus consisted of the old station with eight platforms, separated by a wide road from the new station, with five passenger platforms and a parcel platform. Both stations had waiting halls, station masters’ offices, booking offices and book stalls, in addition to which the new station had a post and telegraph office, reservation and enquiry offices, rest rooms, restaurants and “cloak and check rooms”. A part of the building was occupied by railway administration offices where, in due course, Leonard was to work.
From his role in 1929 as a Transportation Superintendent he rose to the position of Chief Engineer of the GI & PR on 13 March 1933. Having had a period of almost three years reporting to, and working closely with, his predecessor, he had a good understanding of both the scale of the job and the many operational issues involved, and some appreciation of the political issues as the move towards central government management of, and control over, the formerly privately owned railways expanded.
It also brought him back to Bombay and an office in the newly opened station building, and this gave him the opportunity to spend more time sailing at the Royal Bombay Yacht Club, in addition to his long-standing love of golf, polo and hunting. A typical week at this time could involve a few chukkas of polo in the early morning during the week, and golf or sailing at the weekend, while at the same time carrying out a busy travel schedule to visit his operations both in the network and also at the repair workshops. There were no factories for the manufacture of new engines or rolling stock in the GI & PR at this stage, as the British government, basically the owner of the railway network, preferred to keep jobs in England by manufacturing this equipment at home, and exporting it to India. However, there was since 1915, a substantial repair workshop that was established at Matunga, on the central line of the suburban railway network in Bombay where the repair and maintenance of coaches and wagons was carried out, and which, ultimately, was Leonard’s responsibility in his roles as both Chief Engineer and as Agent (basically Chief Executive) of the GI & PR railways. There was also a loco repair workshop at Parel, specialising in POH facilities of the 1.5KV DC locos and the NDM and ZDM locos used on the Neral-Matheran line and some heavy-duty cranes from outside the GI & PR.
He also continued to write to his children, now briefly at separate schools, and to his father and Miss Cooper, virtually every week, and enjoying their responses, particularly from Dick and Alec.
Dick, writing from Earlywood prep school, painted a picture of an active life, even as a very junior student. After a quiet but diligent start to his time at the school in 1929, he won a silver candlestick for “swimming across the bath,” came second in Latin, sixth in arithmetic and fourth in history, while also “doing boxing and dancing and receiving a visit from Auntie Elsie Bloomer and Uncle Harry.” In 1930 he had a French exam … “I came first, and my marks were 89 percent,” and was regarded as “excellent for conduct” and “very good for work” and was hoping that: “you are getting good weather out in Bombay and some riding and also some golf.” Writing in November Dick reported that: “I have sprained a muscle in my leg,” and that: “at the end of term we are having a lot of plays, scout songs, I am singing in a Patrol song.”
The Christmas holiday was spent at Ravenswood, Crowthorne where he was reunited with Alec and saw the pantomime “Toad of Toad Hall”. A letter to Leonard in February congratulated him on “how successful your horse ‘Erne’ has been lately,” and later confirmation that Dick had enjoyed the “dancing class last night … we had waltzes and fox-trots, and also the Sir Roger de Coverley.” An exeat saw him reunited with Alec, staying at 25 Princes Square, London W2, where “I went out to see the Natural History Museum by way of the Metropolitan underground railway from Queens Road Station, Bayswater, though Notting Hill Station, High Street Kensington, Gloucester Road, to South Kensington … we went shopping this morning with Auntie Lou and Miss Wharton.”
After the usual summer holiday, but with an additional trip to Parame on the Normandy coast in France, Dick benefited from the generosity of Aunties Louie and Elsie, and Uncle Arthur; combining to buy him a typewriter. By now, in the September term of 1931, Alec had joined Dick at Earlywood after their holiday; the latter part of which had been spent together at Highlands, which also involved going to Robin Renham’s home where Dick “had a lovely canter on the pony in the afternoon.”
The March term in 1932 included a full sporting day during which Dick “listened to the exciting race between Oxford and Cambridge. I am glad Cambridge won … in the afternoon we played a match against Sutherland House, we won, score 12–3 to us … after the match, we listened in to the International Match between England and Scotland. England won and the score was 16–3.” After a busy term, the boys spent their holiday at The Cottage, Upper Promenade, Colwyn Bay, North Wales where they “went with Auntie Nan in the bus to Llandudno … to get some medicine for Uncle Arthur … have a look at the new colonnade and then we had tea at the Sandbach Café in Mostyn Street.” On Saturday “there was a football match – Colwyn Bay versus Kinmel Bay, at Eirias Park and on Sunday we went up Bryn Euryn.” They also “took a walk along to Grandad’s house and that afternoon went to see the new tunnel that they are building at Conway. The two weeks in Colwyn Bay have simply flown,” wrote Dick. The final days including a night-time trip “to post a letter to you on the mail train and having a good look into the postal van. We were also favoured by being permitted in the cab of the engine. The engine driver showed us how it was worked and told us that it was an old Midland compound engine.” At the end of the fortnight the boys were “extremely sorry to leave Auntie Nan and Uncle Arthur, because they have been so kind to us.”
The boys’ letters at this stage, in the second half of 1932 were being addressed to L. Wilson Esq, Royal Yacht Club, Bombay, India, with a stamp valued at 1.5d or “three-halfpence”. Christmas was spent with Miss Cooper who remained very much an integral part of their lives, regularly visiting them during term time, as well as providing a home for holidays when the boys were not up country with their families. Their education, as ever, remained full and interesting. Dick’s letter dated 22 January 1933 noted that: “on Wednesday, I made a small cabinet to keep odds and ends in. On Thursday we went into Reading to shop. We bought some gloves and some carpentry tools. On Friday we learnt to play bridge. On Saturday I made a bookcase.” They were also retaining their interest in horses and riding, noting that: “we received your description of the race for the Kirke-Smith Trophy, and we are sorry you lost your stirrups. Aunty Chris said that we can have riding lessons next holidays, and then we will be good enough to go for nice rides with you.”
This latter part of the lent term brought with it chickenpox and rugger, in which “I am playing outside right wing three quarter at present but may change to full back when we can play a full side.” Dick was also a keen boy scout and “head of the Rovers Patrol.” The new excitement though came from the knowledge that Leonard would be back on holiday from India again in June 1933, in time for the summer holidays.
As ever, the holiday involved visits to all the relatives, on both sides of the family in Cheshire, as well as a trip to Cornwall, Minehead and Whitley Bay and again to Parame in northern France. After the boys returned to school at Earlywood for the 1933/34-year Leonard decided to visit Oundle School in Northamptonshire as a possible alternative to Eton which was very much the favoured choice of the Earlywood headmaster. Driving across country for a meeting with the Oundle School Headmaster he found on his arrival, a school which, as Viscount Montgomery was later to claim, was a “hidden jewel of British education”, with outstanding facilities for engineering, and science; the legacy of the legendary Headmaster F.W. Sanderson. It also took its sports and particularly rugby, very seriously. At that time neither of these attributes were particularly noteworthy at Eton, so Leonard immediately enrolled both the boys at the school; a decision that was to benefit not just Dick and Alec but succeeding generations of the family.
Leonard reported back for duty in Bombay on 1 December 1933, to take up the role of Chief Engineer of the GIP railways, having spent only about six weeks in the role before going to England on leave. He did so in the knowledge that there was much to do in the network against a background of economic depression, but also in the knowledge that this tour of duty was only three years, compared with the four years previously, which meant that he would see the boys again in 1936, by which time they would both be at Oundle School. Dick left Earlywood after the summer term in 1934, having been “Captain of Cricket and Football, Head of School” and “awarded Open Scholarship to Oundle School.” Alec, following on two years later was equally gifted in all areas.
Leonard’s tour of duty was a difficult one with rising trade unionism, falling revenues due to the general economic recession and the need to continue to develop and improve the rail network, all, at this time, with the increasing involvement of central government. At the same time, adding to his workload, Leonard was appointed a Justice of the Peace “by Notification of the Government of Bombay in the Home Department, No. P.22 dated 29 October 1934 … By order of His Excellency the Right Honourable the Governor in Council.”
Towards the end of this tour of duty he was promoted to the position of GI & PR “Agent” (Provisional), in effect the Chief Executive of the now government owned GIP railway on 16 February 1935, staying in this role until he was next due for leave on 18 May 1936. His leave was taken, as ever, in England, covering the whole of the summer holidays from both Earlywood and Oundle, which latter school Alec was due to join in September. Complete with his car, Leonard and the boys were able to travel fairly extensively during this summer holiday, taking in the normal places in north Wales and Cheshire, as well as Cornwall and Ventnor on the Isle of Wight and plenty of horse riding which they all enjoyed. It also enabled them all to be together for Alec’s arrival at New House, Oundle School, for his first term.
Leonard then had to sail back to India to continue his role as Agent, or in effect General Manager, of the GIP railways as from 9 October 1936. Two years later, his services were “placed at the disposal of the Railway Board” and he was appointed to officiate (on a temporary basis) as the Chief Commissioner of the railways. Hence, he relinquished his role as General Manager of the GIP Railways on 8 April 1938 and joined the Railway Board’s Office “as temporary replacement for Sir Guthrie Russell,” while he was away on leave. Reporting on his time as Agent of the GIP Railways, the Times of India noted later that, “It was during a very anxious period in the history of Indian Railways when depression had hit the transport systems of the country that Mr Wilson took charge of the GIP Railway. It was in some measure due to his administration that the Railway successfully weathered the depression.” The article went on to note that Leonard was a “member of the Institute of Engineering India … a Justice of the Peace … a trustee of the Port of Bombay and takes keen interest in educational matters.”
This latter facet of Leonard’s life was confirmed in a letter to Leonard from his former colleague AV D’Costa, writing to Leonard in 1977, and noting that: “You have enquired about the Bombay Education Society, which you were at one time very involved in. In your days in the late 30s, the school was for the children of Englishmen in India who could not afford to send their children to England and did provide a good measure of the English type of education in Bombay. This school has not only survived up to today but is flourishing and is one of the leading upper-class educational institutions in the city and is today patronised by the upper-class Indians of Bombay who can afford the high fees charged. I do not know if you can recollect another school that was just opposite the Christ Church School, the Hume Memorial School which was also an Anglican Missionary School. This school has also survived and is now a high school with a very good vernacular type of education. Both the schools are very well run. particularly the one of which you were the Chairman, the Christ Church High School.”
He remained in this temporary role as Chief Commissioner of the railways until 29 August 1938 when illness laid him low and he was shipped back to England, “with Mrs Gill the then Matron of the Byculla Hospital in charge,” for what turned out to be “one year, three months and nineteen days” of hospital treatment and convalescence “with sick leave on half pay for all but twenty-two months and two days.”
This coincided with Dick’s last term at Oundle, during which he took his Cambridge University entrance exam (thereby successfully being invited to study at Trinity Hall in the autumn term of 1939). At that stage, Dick had won his first eleven colours at cricket, was Head of New House, and a school prefect, and was to earn his first fifteen colours at rugby for the second year, distinguishing himself as a full back of such quality that his then coach, the legendary Frank Spragg, was to opine, in 1961, that Dick was the best Oundle full back he had ever seen. He also played in the annual invitation rugby match for Richmond Schools versus London Scottish Schools, representing in effect English public schools against their Scottish equivalents. Alec was to go on, in the next two years, to emulate and exceed Dick’s achievements at Oundle, ultimately captaining Oxford University at rugby and playing a full season of international matches for Scotland, after the war in 1948.
Leonard, in the autumn of 1938, underwent extensive surgery at Guy’s Hospital in London for the removal of parts of many ribs by way of ridding him of the spinal TB that laid him low, and then spent several weeks convalescing at Nuffield House, in the care of Miss Densham and Sister Drogan, the former becoming a regular fixture in Dick’s letters in the months to come. Dick and Alec were regular, if not frequent, visitors to the hospital, while at the same time leading full and active lives, at school, at least until the end of the Michaelmas term in that year. Thereafter, having spent Christmas together, Dick, having left Oundle, went off to “The Benedict School of Languages” in Lausanne, Switzerland, to give himself a basic grounding in the languages he was to study at Cambridge, from the autumn term of 1939, namely French and German. He returned from his studies, in the late summer and soon joined up with Leonard and Alec; the latter having completed his first season in the Oundle first eleven cricket team.
Had she still been alive Muriel would have had good reason to be proud of her men, but a little concerned for their welfare, given the challenges ahead for all three of them.
