Description
Object description
Well written ts memories (68pp) about his service with the Somaliland Scouts between 1956 and 1959 whilst on a temporary secondment from the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, with stories about hunting a lion which stole a sheep from the zariba (enclosed campsite), joining 'B' Company near Ainabo, Southern Somalia, and leading a camel patrol to visit the local tribes, accompanied by the local chief of police, with details of the method of hiring, riding and controlling convoys of camels, and of meetings with village elders, and being invited to attend a wedding in a mosque, construction of wells in Somalia, local wildlife, hunting a gazelle for meat, a mission to search for and detain a group of supposedly armed men in the area, looking after two orphan Gerenuk (Waller's Gazelle), a secret mission to buy 200 donkeys for forthcoming operations in Aden, with details of the negotiations to purchase them and the journey to the port near Berbera, a patrol from Mait to the Somalia border to 'show the flag', driving through mountain passes and desert, and meeting a Sultan of the Warsengelli tribe, interspersed throughout with things he had learned about Somali and Muslim culture. The account stops abruptly (pages missing?). Together with a copy of the original order, Operational Instruction No 1, Donkeys (3pp, 15 September 1958), concerning the secret purchase of 200 donkeys.
Content description
Well written ts memories (68pp) about his service with the Somaliland Scouts between 1956 and 1959 whilst on a temporary secondment from the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, with stories about hunting a lion which stole a sheep from the zariba (enclosed campsite), joining 'B' Company near Ainabo, Southern Somalia, and leading a camel patrol to visit the local tribes, accompanied by the local chief of police, with details of the method of hiring, riding and controlling convoys of camels, and of meetings with village elders, and being invited to attend a wedding in a mosque, construction of wells in Somalia, local wildlife, hunting a gazelle for meat, a mission to search for and detain a group of supposedly armed men in the area, looking after two orphan Gerenuk (Waller's Gazelle), a secret mission to buy 200 donkeys for forthcoming operations in Aden, with details of the negotiations to purchase them and the journey to the port near Berbera, a patrol from Mait to the Somalia border to 'show the flag', driving through mountain passes and desert, and meeting a Sultan of the Warsengelli tribe, interspersed throughout with things he had learned about Somali and Muslim culture. The account stops abruptly (pages missing?). Together with a copy of the original order, Operational Instruction No 1, Donkeys (3pp, 15 September 1958), concerning the secret purchase of 200 donkeys.
History note
Cataloguer SJO