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1. Gabrielle Liddy says:

   September 13, 2011 at 5:06 pm

   I really enjoyed reading your blog, which I came across quite by chance. My son has just started in the 6 th form at Gordonstoun. My mother was born in 1940 in Kuala Lumpa; she and her mother were on the last boat leaving Singapore to Perth. I hope you have recovered from your illness.

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   • David Walser says:

     October 19, 2011 at 6:11 pm

     Thank you for your reaction. What good fortune you had to get out on the last boat. We left earlier than I thought: I’ve found the ship’s manifest: we were on the Athlone Castle and landed at Southampton on the 29thJune 1940. By coincidence my father was offered the command of the Air Station at Kula Lumpur along with a promotion to Air Commodore. He turned it down because he wanted to get back to England and join the war effort. My mother, whose instincts were spot on, thought my father’s health would not survive the heat of KL . Father was very sure – wrongly as it turned out – that there would not be any war in the Far East. So he was in the Air Ministry and we survived but he never got that rise in rank: it was obviously a black mark that he refused the appointment.
     I hope your boy is happy at Gordonstoun. I have been impressed by what I have seen recently but there is a new Head , so it will be interesting to watch developments. It can’t be easy to take over from someone who has been in the job for 20 years or so.
     With very best wishes
     David

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