1961 When I was 22 & Mitch was 1 & Martin wasn't .......



...............I/we arrived in Singapore.

Heat exhaustion was well enough known no doubt but unknown to me. Maybe it had been explained to us. I'm not sure though, the Royal Air Force seemed to have sent us from England to the Far East remarkably ill-prepared.

A family of three, we somehow found accomodation. Nobody gave us salt tablets or told us about salt tablets. Nobody told us to drink plenty.

The unmarried airman was pitched in with other airmen who'd been there for weeks, months even years. But us married families were essentially dumped a few miles north of the equator about as green as it's possible to imagine. We got no advice because, somehow, there was nobody close to advise. Green? We were very, very white!

So a great many men, women and children of that period no doubt got very sunburned and very de-hydrated. That results in that debilitating and sometimes fatal condition known as heat exhaustion.

I reported for duty at 390 M.U. (an aircraft maitnenance Unit) at R.A.F. Seletar, maybe a mile and a half away on my newly purchased bicycle. The heat, the humidity, of course I'd never known anything like it. Sweat, sweat, sweat.

That first period in this new world was a tale of increasing fatigue and decreasing appetite. I'd cycle to work in the morning and stumble about my duties then cycle home for a lunch I'd probably not eat but merely lie on the bed, sweating. A headache and awful tiredness making me utterly miserable. Then back to work for the afternoon and back home as a repeat performance.
Probably, in medical terms, I was dying. And it went on for days and days. I didn't know why or what to do. Sounds stupid now but pride kept me plodding along.

I didn't die or end up in the base hospital but it was a hellish time. Presumably somebody, somewhere got the message across to me. I must have started drinking more and adding salt to my diet but in time I got over it.

I sometimes wonder at how "we" sent our young men overseas in the several centuries of Empire. Presumably the new arrivals learnt from the old hands already there, or perished.

I was 22 and knew little of the lands 'beyond the sea'. Then, suddenly, we climbed into a Britannia and 25 hours later, climbed out onto the tropical dot on the map called Singapore.

Five years earlier troop ships were still being used to send servicemen to the corners of the Empire. This allowed the young novices a chance to "get their knees brown" and absorb the accumulated wisdom of the men who'd done it before.

A year later I was sunburnt and dark as any native and fitter than I'd ever been or would ever be again.

All for Queen and Country!