Life and death in the Sphinx
STILL in Malaya . . . It was October 1951 and British High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney had been ambushed and killed by Communist bandits. He died a brave death. His Rolls-Royce was halted by the bandits and, in order to save the lives of his wife and his driver, Sir Henry got out and deliberately walked into a hail of gunfire.
Shortly after that dreadful day, we were told that the British Colonial Secretary, Oliver Lyttleton was on his way to Malaya for vital talks, and during his tour of the country the 12th Royal Lancers were to be his bodyguard.
It was in the wee sma' hours of the morning and I was on duty as night clerk in the Orderly Room. The door burst open and a messenger from the Wireless Room shoved a piece of paper into my hand. "It's urgent!" he shouted. I looked at the paper, looked at the messenger and said: "It's in code, you fool! Get it decoded . . . now!"
Ten minutes later he returned with the decoded message, and it read:
I roused the Adjutant and a bunch of other people and, before reveille had even sounded they were planning exactly how to ensure that Winston Churchill's order was obeyed.
The answer the 12th Lancers came up with was to convert one of our Daimler armoured cars. The turret gun was removed and replaced with a wooden dummy. The gunner's seat was taken out and replaced with an officer's comfy armchair. And we boldly painted the armoured car's new name on the side of the turret. We named it "Sphinx", because it had no voice.
So it was that Lyttleton toured around Malaya and lived.
But there was a sad ending. After the VIP had gone, Sphinx was on its way up the hills to visit the Gordon Highlanders camp in Raub, 40 miles away. Part of the road crumbled, Sphinx crashed over down a precipitous hillside into the jungle below. None of the crew survived.
Bob Gibb, ex 12th Royal Lancers many years ago.
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story, limerick or song that you remember from your service, we would like
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