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The Berlin Airlift connection
MADRAS CONNECTIONS Acting British High Commissioner in South India, Fred Rainsford and his wife hosting Mary Clubwallah and High Commissioner John Freeman in Madras in the early 1960s
Another couple from Britain who were in Madras about the same time as the Balfours was Josephine and Simon Felton. They were re-living memories of the late Sixties when they met in Madras, got married and lived here till the early Seventies. Simon Felton, a boxwallah with Wilson & Co., played rugby for the Gymkhana, sailed at the Yacht Club and rode with the Madras Riding Club. Josephine Felton worked at the British Deputy High Commission where her father Air Commodore Fred Rainsford had been posted as First Secretary in late 1963.
Rainsford recalls his Madras years in a chapter in a low-key autobiography, Memoirs of an Accidental Airman, in which, in keeping with the title, he underplays a rather distinguished Air Force career that eventually led him into the diplomatic service. A bomber pilot during World War II, he participated in the raids on Benghazi which prevented Rommel the reinforcements and supplies he required, and in the raid on Peenemunde which set back the German rocket programme several months. After the War, he was appointed to the Air Transport Department in the Air Ministry. While there, he helped kick start the Berlin Airlift in 1948 which began with a few RAF Dakotas supplying the British garrison in Berlin. From small beginnings, this ferry service was to grow into a massive supply of goods by air to Allied troops and West Berliners. As the senior staff officer in the Air Ministry, he was responsible for the day to day implementation of the Airlift.
Later, joining the Home Civil Service, Rainsford was posted to the Defence Department of the Commonwealth Relations Office. And it was in this post that he was responsible for another airlift, flying out £19 million worth of state-of-the-art military supplies India had requested to bolster its forces after the Chinese invasion of 1962. FN rifles, anti-tank guns, anmmunition, armoured vehicles and other supplies were all airlifted between October and December 1962. Adds Rainsford, "Perhaps because my name had become associated with India, at the end of 1963 I was posted to the Deputy High Commission in Madras." Here he was to act as Deputy High Commissioner on several occasions.
Bringing back memories of an almost forgotten age is Rainsford's recollection of a request he had from his eldest daughter, Josephine. She used to ride with Simon Felton in Guindy Park when they were courting and after each ride, Simon used to offer to buy her a drink. Wanting to reciprocate the hospitality, she asked her father one day "if it was all right if she registered as an alcoholic!" He assured her that he "thought this was quite in order although in view of her very tender years the ration would be very small." A short while later, Rainsford recalls, while on leave in London he offered to stand a friend a drink. When they got up to leave, "I found myself searching for coupons whilst my guest reached into his pocket for money to pay the bill!" Ah, the things Prohibition made you do!
That's not a problem now as the Feltons catch up with old friends and a bit of sailing. They've also spent time visiting the Cheshire Homes, in `Covelong', with which Rainsford was closely associated both officially as well as personally due to his friendship with fellow bomber Group Captain Leonard Cheshire. The Feltons were delighted to find the de Monte mansion still standing in `Covelong'. It was once a favourite holiday stop of theirs.
S. MUTHIAH
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