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Alexander " Tarzan " in Burma.

Lovely Story

EXTRACT FROM “THE ROAD FROM MANDALAY” by J.S. and H.M. VORLEY

p. 83... “Lusk and I finally decided to drive as far north as we could by car, which only meant about fifteen miles to Tantabin.  There the motor road ended but we might get a train, and if that failed we could link up with some retiring Army unit.   At Tantabin that evening we met a Battalion of Burma Military Police under the command of “Tarzan” Learmond whom I had known in Maymyo in pre-war days.   His Battalion was acting as rearguard on the flank of our retiring Army.   He made us very welcome and we were able to give him the latest news, but I think what thrilled him most was the fact that I intended to ditch my car, a beautiful almost brand-new 1941 Chevrolet saloon.  His Battalion was mounted, but with only ponies for transport his movements were very restricted.   However, I wanted a haversack, so we did a schoolboy swop, my 3,000- rupee car for his 10-rupee haversack.   Seven years afterwards I was introduced to a man in the bar of the Grand Hotel in Lagos, Nigeria, who remarked; “I have met you before, didn’t you swop a car for a haversack at Tantabin?   I was one of “Tarzan’s officers”.  It is a small world.


Owner of originalMargaret Learmond
Date24 Aug 2012
Linked toAlexander William Swanson. LEARMOND

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