Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 207
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[Page 207]
103
their respective camps before "lights-out". But many overstayed their leave and some got very drunk and quarrelsome in the bars and brothels that abounded in this sinful city, often getting involved in nasty brawls with the "Gyppos". Often soldiers got so drunk as to be easily thugged or robbed, especially in the vilest quarters. The Britisher, even the ordinary private soldier, was very much the "top dog", and the lowly local natives were booted around on the slightest provocation: the local civilian police were completely ignored by the troops, and rarely attempted to curb the cavalier behaviour of any soldiers of King George V.
But the situation regarding troops on leave in Cairo was rapidly getting out of hand, so a detatchment of hefty Australian privates, mostly ex-policemen, a few stalwart N.C.Os, two Lieutenants and a Captain, were detailed as a town picquet for a three weeks' tour of duty in the city. We were billeted with the 7th East Lancashire Fusiliers (a Territorial unit) in the old Kasr el Nil barracks situated right on the River Nile not far from the centre of the European Quarter. From the barrack square there was a pretty view of the island parks in the river, straight across, and at intervals one could see a "flock" of white-sailed feluccas passing through the opened bascule bridge nearby.
The picquet was organised in two shifts, one of which patrolled the streets, keeping order, from 3 to 10 p.m. after which it was relieved by the other shift, that had the added duty of clearing the soldiers, of all countries, out of the city in time to be back in their respective camps before the prescribed 11 p.m. Any incapables or uncooperatives were man-handled into a "garry" and driven to the Military Police Barracks for the night, the fare being taken from whatever money they possessed.
After midnight this late shift started clearing soldiers out of the brothels, a member of the civilian police acting as a guide. Usually the ejected delinquents were persuaded to get started back to their camp without further ado, and be disciplined by their own unit on arrival, but sometimes the