205126 Pay Sjt. Herbert "Squirt" Martindale British Army 1st Btn. Manchester Regiment from:Longsight, Manchester My Father's brother, Uncle Bert served in India. A few postcards have recently been found stuck in an old album and I have been able to detach them from their glued positions to reveal messages from Khandahar barracks in Fyzabad India. They were sent to my Father and his family and are dated between Dec 1917 and April 1918. He speaks of the intense heat in March - 107 degrees and the Smallpox and Bubonic plagues and says the people are "dirty" and their straw houses had to be burned to the ground, so they were given tents to live in. He also says not to worry about him because he is in the "Land of Plenty" and he refers to parcels he has sent over requesting to know whether they have arrived so that he can have receipts. I was told that he sent ivory and brass ornaments and a cigar and he mentions a tin of tea and sugar. He says he expects the unit to be moved, the move abroad was cancelled but there is to be a move within India. I don't think that came about as in the April 1918 postcard he thinks "--this is the last few months of the war." His brother, my Father, didn't have a good war, he was badly wounded in Ypres while all this was going on. Uncle Bert was in Hong Kong in the Military Police force at some time and was partially blinded due to an accident. He later married and two of his children are living. Having just telephoned one of them he tells me his Father first was at Hydrabad, and he referred to Fysabad as "flies are bad"!! The posting to Hong Kong was around 1920.
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