MAJOR JOHN FORBES ASHTON

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My father, John Forbes Ashton was "loaned" (officially sent on detached duty) by The Border Regiment, based on Carlisle in Cumberland - to the then middle-eastern British protectorate which is now known as the Yemen; he had been promoted to Captain and was then promoted to Major, and posted in 1936 or 37 to the Aden Protectorate Levies, an indigenous Arab military unit which had the benefit of dad's expertise to train then in drill, weaponry and the strategies of desert skirmishes.

Father commanded (he was officially the Adjutant of) the Aden Protectorate Levies from 1936 to 1941. His British chain of command went via the Station Commander of the RAF base at Khormaksar who was in theory the Commanding Officer of the Levies. The R.A.F. had a handful of very ancient fighter aircraft, though it is uncertain what they were supposed to defend, and from whom!

In some ways the chain of command was like that of my uncle Orme with the Arab Legion's 3rd Brigade at Ramullah - Orme being responsible to Glubb Pasha, both being British, except that Glubb was responsible to King Abdulla bin Hussein. I understand that father was also directly responsible to Sheikh Othman (with whom he communicated regularly) for the Levies.

We actually lived just outside of the village of Sheikh Othman (named after its "owner"), some ten or so miles out from Aden on the road towards Lahej. Aden has its intriguing "Crater Town" which is constructed in an extinct volcano crater!

The community of Sheikh Othman was bustling, built around a natural oasis, with fresh water running in a fertile irrigated spot totally surrounded by desert. Mother's chief servant Ali used to head off to the market (Sukh) at Sheikh Othman at about six every morning. Probably the time father went to work. Afternoons were unbearably hot so nobody did anything... father's work resumed about 5pm for several hours, if there was no entertaining - and entertaining was always alcohol free except for Europeans. Frequent guests were the local sheikh I believe, and other local businessmen.

The roof of the house was great for summer sleeping (inside mosquito nets, of course). From memory the ceiling height of the rooms inside the house were about ten feet, with electric and mechanical fans. We had no "punkah wallahs" in our employ!

The sheikh was a subordinate ruler to the Sultan (perhaps Amir) of Lahej, who owned a rest house at Dhala in the mountains a long way to the north, which we visited several times during our stay.

As dad was therefore the senior officer of the Levies, he and mother were kept very busy with "official functions" as well as his military duties, and hence a substantial amount of my upbringing had to be performed with the help of an Arab Ayah (a woman servant hired for the job) assisted by Ali, the senior Arab member of the house staff. Alas I don't remember very much of that period.

Ian Campbell Taylor was a British pharmacist who had served his military period of "National Service" at Aden in the 1950's, with a life-style similar in many respects to that of my family in the late 30's/early 40's. 

This brought back memories long dormant... for example the two-storey plus roof walled house with massive front gates, and palm trees around the front, and huge back yard (also walled), all standing in isolation in the desert. This was provided by Sheikh Othman to Ashton Sahib and Memsahib because father ran what was effectively Sheikh Othman's private army.

Italy, who had colonised what is now known as Somalia, then called 'Somaliland', entered the war on the opposite side to the British, and apart from a couple of high level air raids across the straits from Djibouti - raids which didn't acchieve anything very much - on the whole we were unaware of the war. I do vaguely remember being taken up on to the flat roof of our house and seeing 'the pretty lights' of bombs falling and exploding at night time in the desert.

Then, I believe at the end of 1940, father was recalled to active service in Europe. We travelled by the good ship "Almanzora" - a Royal Mail Line "Packet", the Master of which was a Captain Bridges according to a 'crossing the line' certificate I used to have.

I have been told that 'Almanzora' was later torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic while serving as a troopship - with the loss of all hands.  ~ Richard Ashton