One Hell Of a Life: An Anglo-Indian Wallah's Memoir from the Last Decades of the Raj

Captain Stan Blackford was born in India. His father, Edward George Blackford, was an English engineer who worked for the Indian Government Department that inspected factory boilers to ensure conformity with safety regulations. Edward married Rhoda Doris Duncan in 1918. Doris (as she chose to be called) was the daughter of a Scottish ex-soldier who worked as a Guard on the Indian Railways and had married an Anglo-Indian girl. The union of Edward and Doris was blessed with two sons – Stanley born in 1920 and Frank in 1922. Stanley describes himself as an Anglo-Indian.

Frank was the cleverer of the two and became an engineer like his Dad. Stanley was retarded and was dragged through 10 schools spending much time standing in the corner of the classroom, wearing a dunce’s hat and suffering much corporal punishment from school teachers. He was sent to a Jesuit School at the age of 12 (this was his eleventh school). The Jesuits “turned him around" and Stanley later became dux of their most prestigious college in India – “North Point", perched 6000 feet up in the Himalayan Mountains. He never looked back from that point on and was promoted faster than his peers in all the jobs he was to hold in later years.

During World War II Stan entered the Indian Military Academy, passed out top of his class and was commissioned to one of the most famous fighting regiments of the Indian Army, the 13th Frontier Force Rifles. During his six years’ service in the Indian Army he spent one year as a Captain Lecturer at a Military School; and one year as Adjutant of the Prince Of Wales Royal Indian Military College where the sons of ruling princes and of rich Indian captains of industry were educated and trained for admission to the Indian Military Academy. Most of these boys later achieved General rank in the Indian and Pakistan Military forces after the partition of India into two separate Dominions: India and Pakistan.

When India and Pakistan achieved Independence from British rule, Britishers living there were repatriated to the United Kingdom. Anglo-Indians generally felt unwanted by their countrymen and, indeed, suffered much prejudice and hostility from the public. Consequently many Anglo-Indians emigrated in droves to the UK, Canada, America and Australia. The author decided to try his luck in Australia, where he fared well and married an Australian girl who bore him four children who, in turn, added eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren to his extended family.

The author would tell his children about his many interesting experiences during his 28 years in India and they often clamoured, “Why don’t you write a book?" This led to his publishing One Hell Of A Life, which became a best-seller. The author became interested in Public Speaking and founded the first Toastmasters Club in the State of South Australia in 1961, from where it spread to Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia to form District 73. Stan has achieved the status of DTM (Distinguished Toast Master).