Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 203
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[Page 203]
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with our still incomplete military training. Our stern efficient Lt-Colonel Braund soon had us out on long route marches nearly every day, wearing full equipment. We trudged, rather than marched, for ten to fifteen miles out over the desolate sandhills on the edge of the desert, in burning heat and sometimes blinding standstorms, to execute minor tactical exercises or to do "shoots" on improvised battle ranges. The other battalions christened us "Braund's Camel Corps", because we wore full packs during this strenuous training much more often than they did.
A score of Egyptian youths and girls invariably accompanied us on these marches, to sell hard-boiled eggs ("eggs-a-cook") oranges and chocolate bars during our hourly ten-minute rests.
Later, during big Brigade manoeuvres, we bivouacked all night on the desert, which became icy cold after midnight, and we were all burying ourselves in the sand trying to get warm. The fellow who wrote that old song about loving his sweetheart "until the sands of the desert grow cold", obviously never spent a night on a desert: he certainly would not have loved her for very long.
But there were the bright spots in our life, such as being granted leave two or three times a fortnight to go into Cairo, by taxi, tram or four-wheeled horse cab, for the late afternoon and night. In this very cosmopolitan city, French was the lingua franca, and I was able to put my school lessons in it to good use, and become fairly fluent eventually. After spending an hour or two wandering curiously through the noisy smelly streets of the bazaars and the native quarter, we would generally quench our thirsts with strong waters at one of the select bars or fashionable beer-gardens, until the pangs of hunger prompted us to dine and wine, expensively at the World famous Shepeards Hotel, or at the less exalted but equally luxurious "Continental" farther along the street. After which it was customary, at a late hour, to dance with gay and gracious Continental or Levantine young ladies at a nearby cabaret until well after midnight: the "Casino de Paris" was a favoured spot.
It was all good lusty fun for soldiers dedicated to a