The serial: Largie Castle, A Rifled Nest Day 66

The majority of recruits hailed from the Punjab; mostly very young, they came from families with a military tradition

The first battalion was the 5/2 Punjabs, a regiment raised in 1798 during the Madras Presidency and a run-of-the-mill Indian army unit comprised of Punjabi Muslims, Sikhs and Dogras. The second battalion was the 4/19 Hyderabads, instituted in 1788 by Nawab Salabat Khan of Ellichpur to protect the northern borders of the Hyderabad state. As chief of staff to the brigadier, Angus became responsible for several thousand men, a position that only went to the best officers.

While the brigadier was away from headquarters, the brigade-major assumed responsibility, which included the supervision of staff work (intelligence, logistics and personnel) at brigade headquarters. Angus must have been very good at his job.

It was essential for the commander of a battalion or brigade to have a stalwart right-hand man backing him up in all matters, such as providing direction to operations and sometimes going up to the frontline.

Implicit in the position of brigade-major was an attention to detail, the skill to write clearly, and be able not only to command, but also to possess the independence of mind to make important decisions.

Knowledge Archibald Paris was Angus’s brigadier. Rose describes him as having a deep knowledge of human nature and as an experienced, fighting soldier keen to discuss morale and training. “Our jocks were very fond of Archie Paris.” He could talk to them in a straightforward manner on widely differing subjects.

His unruffled manner under fire had also won their admiration. Indeed, one jock, Corporal Gibson, wrote of Paris in glowing terms: “He was a powerfully built, handsome officer, his face deeply tanned through years of service. His iron grey moustache was always neatly clipped and his eyes shrewd and quizzical. Like Colonel Stewart, Paris was athletic, very strong and took pride in his physical fitness. He could outmarch men many years his junior.”

To be brigade-major of the 12th Indian Infantry Brigade was to be responsible for far more Indian soldiers than British. In fact, half of all troops sent to defend Malaya were from India. At the beginning of the Second World War, the Indian Army was 200,000 strong but by the end of 1941, it had grown to almost 900,000 officers and men.

The Indian Army was organised like the British Army; an infantry battalion had four rifle companies, a headquarters company, and a specialist platoon. Dominating the infantry were Indian recruits who were all volunteers.

They came from races noted for their physique and martial prowess, the most renowned being the Gurkhas from Nepal but also the Sikhs, Rajputs and Pathans. The majority of recruits hailed from the Punjab; mostly very young, they came from families with a military tradition.

Discipline, training and strong traditional ties generated loyalty and service in the Indian recruit. An Indian infantry battalion was a mixture of races and religions organised into separate companies. The 12 to 16 officers who held a King’s Commission were almost all British.

Successful After the First World War, a few places were made available for Indians at Sandhurst where, on successful completion of the course, they too were awarded a King’s Commission. In 1932, an officers’ training academy opened at Dehra Dun on the subcontinent, where graduates became Indian commissioned officers.

This process was known as ‘Indianisation’ and the 4/19 Hyderabads was one of the first regiments to be involved in it. By 1939, one in seven officers in the Indian army was Indian.

As brigade-major, Angus served alongside Indian officers in the 12th Indian Infantry Brigade but he possessed no more than a smattering of Hindi, Urdu or any other Indian tongue as the English-speaking Indian officers he commanded were able to translate his orders for their men.

It was rare for an Argyll officer to learn Urdu. Judging from Angus’s workload, the courses he attended, his promotion to the position of adjutant, and his off-duty interests, his “knowledge of the language would have been rudimentary”.

Out of all Angus’s brother officers at Secunderabad, only Aubrey Gibbon passed a lower standard Urdu exam in 1935.

We know nothing of Angus’s relations with the Indian officers of the brigade but it must be understood that he and most other young men of his class and era spent their formative years influenced by formidable figures: doughty, devoted schoolmasters and dons, whose outlook and morals harked back to the Victorian age. These men, in knowing that their charges were born to lead, encouraged them to conduct themselves well and exercise a sense of service and responsibility towards those placed in their care.

The Indians who amounted to 36,920, greatly outnumbered the 20,900 personnel of the British Army in Malaya. The other sizeable presence was the 8th Australian Division, numbering 15,160, under Major General Gordon Bennett.

Different to the British, the Australian Army was a citizen militia, which received reasonable pay and had no staff-trained officers.

Volunteers Many were volunteers, their units comprising friends, brothers, and workmates. The Australian officer was less formal than his British counterpart and spent more time on field craft, weapon training and tactics than on drilling and turnout.

Undoubtedly Angus had contact with the antipodeans and in a less fiery manner than the jocks who clashed with them in clubs and bars.

It was to “the Aussies,” as they were chummily termed, that Angus made his famed two-mile dash up Bukit Timah Road on the north-west of Singapore city during the last-ditch attempt to save it from invasion by the Japanese.

The task of brigade-major in this polyglot, pluralistic garrison was complex, not least because among the Indian troops and officers there was considerable unrest. Some were close to mutiny.

The political situation in India was delicate; nationalism was growing and although the army had always been insulated from politics, these elements of subversion were reflected in the views of many officers who were beginning to “tire of drinking the King Emperor’s health each night”.

From May 7-9 1940, almost a year before Angus’s appointment, two companies from the 4/19 Hyderabads refused to obey orders and were disarmed; the 2nd Argylls had been placed on alert.

More on Monday

By Mary Gladstone