S/Sgt Tate Pinto, B.E.

Class of '64

My brother Tertuliano Antonio Pinto, or Tate as we called him then, and Tony now, was born in Nairobi, Kenya, the eldest son of Marcelo and Jasmina. Evylyn Pinto- Willis is our sister. He was married to the late Flora Mascarenhas and has a 19 year old daughter Michelle.

As I arrived on this planet 13 years after Tate, my early memories consist mainly of him rushing off to school, and later work, and after that was over, rushing off to some sports field; after which he would come back in stinking stockings and dirty boots.

He loved sports, and was goalkeeper of the Crusaders football team. Later in the army he was to be football and hockey goalkeeper and rugby wing half. He was a good athlete, first a middle distance runner, later taking up cross country racing and marathons. When his knees gave him trouble in later years, he took to race walking. In fact on Easter Sunday this year, he was in Assam, representing Goa in the 25 km walk at the National Veteran Athletics Meet. Oh yes, there was also squash, and most especially golf, for which he had a special passion.

He was educated at Dr Ribeiro's Goan School. I suppose that he must have been reasonably well liked and diligent, for one of his classmates Afra Fernandes (nee DeMello) wrote," I remember him as a friendly classmate but not as mischievous as some of us. I did manage to crib some of his homework on a few occasions and I'm sure it's because of that I managed to get through a few exams!!!" Another classmate, Rashmi Patwardhan wrote, "I remember him fondly as a simple, humble and nice person."

But I recall he had the reputation of being a 'responsible' and 'disciplined' person. That is, whenever something in the neighborhood or school went wrong, he would be held responsible, whether he had committed the mischief, or as was quite often likely, he hadn't.

Perhaps he used to become the fall guy because, on the one hand he would stand up to authority and take punishment if required without flinching, and on the other hand he would not tattle on the real culprits. The discipline came because when the complaints arrived, my mother would always take them as the Gospel truth.

It could be that this regime of responsibility and discipline drew Tate to England to join the British Armed Forces. These are qualities required in abundance there. This decision brought dismay to our parents who wanted him to take up some white–collar job, and not risk having his head blown off by the I.R.A.

He first joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) Regiment or 'Rock Apes' as they were known due their numerous tours of duty in Gibraltar. Then he moved to the army and served in R.E.M.E. – the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers where he was selected in the Parachute Brigade. His close friend John Downes tells me, "In signing up for service with the Paras and duly earning the right to wear the coveted 'Red Beret' plus 'wings' we earned an extra £1.50 a day 'jump pay' and being also technically qualified we earned more than our counterparts in the infantry!"

Whilst in the British army, Tate became a confirmed Anglophile. There he first found out that Tertuliano and Tate were both names which his British mates would find odd. So he went and changed his name from Tertuliano Antonio Pinto (Tate) to Antonio Tertuliano Pinto (Tony).

I suppose he was good in the army, for they awarded him a British Empire (BE) medal. Tony penned some of his army experiences down in a book called Operation Welsh Castle. Hopefully that will be published some day.

After he retired from the army at the age of 40, he came down to Goa and constructed a house in Benaulim. Knowing the peculiarities of the denizens of both Moira and Benaulim, people used to wonder if that was what made him extra wise. Actually we are gaunkars of Sangolda.

He persisted in his British habits of getting up at 4 a.m. in the morning and having his supper by 6.30. Unlike most Goans, he would treat all his fellows, whether rich or poor, Hindu or Christian, Brahmin or Sudra as equals.

To illustrate this, on his walks by the Benaulim beach, whenever he saw a fisherman he would assist him in pulling in the nets. One day one of them offered him a job thinking he was down and out, for Tony used to dress very simply. That same evening that fisherman met him again at a shack, and from the look on his face, was rather surprised to see Tony driving a jeep (in those days you had to be well off to afford one).

He was quite involved in socially constructive causes. He was Vice-Chairman of the Benaulim Environmental Trust; he was involved with M.A.R.G. – the voluntary organization involved with traffic issues; he was very much into Master Athletics; and organizing and coaching youngsters at sports; even as he turned 60 this year, he was instrumental in setting up a Senior Citizen's Organization for Goans. In the last few years, I also noticed that he was getting more religious.

In Benaulim he must have been a piquant figure, often preferring to walk to Margao, rather than take his car. And he had an opinion about everything - from nuclear proliferation, to how to walk on the roads and would passionately argue his case often at the risk of creating enemies. As our brother-in-law Andrew says, whereas 800 million Indians believe that one must walk on the left hand side of the road, Tony insisted that they should walk against the flow of the traffic. [BTW, Tony was right.] He would habitually fire off letters to the newspapers expounding his views on all these different issues.

He had his share of misfortunes. After his wife Flora died tragically young, he was both father and mother to Michelle. He tried his utmost to give her the best he could without indulging in anything wasteful. It must be very painful for her to again bear this loss at this young age.

There is a saying in Konkani,"Mel'le mhoshik bara sher doodh" that loosely translates 'Once a buffalo has died, the owners will claim that she used to give buckets of milk' I do not want to say this; I do not want to pretend that Tony was some sort of mahatma. He had his failings and he made his mistakes. But then so have I my failings, and so am I making my mistakes. So who am I to sit in judgment over him?

The one thing I most envy my elder brother is his friends. The number of people who called, sent messages and came to visit him from far and wide amazed me. Many from South Goa thought it worth the while to travel to Moira to keep his spirits up. Two of his mates from the army, John Downes and Allan Wainwright, specially flew down from England to comfort him when they heard of his last illness. Another couple, Ake and Annette Heljemo came from Sweden to pay their respects.

I was to witness his last days and am proud to say that he bore his suffering with great fortitude. Till the last he simply did not allow himself the luxury of crying out in pain although it was evident on his face that he was in agony, and he tried to be as cooperative as possible. In fact I think that for this fiercely independent person what must have been more distressing than the pain from the cancer was the fact that he had to now depend on others for the simplest of things.

I'd like to conclude with the words of Merwin D'Souza, one of his classmates who wrote, "I know Tate enjoyed walking......I'm sure he's up there in peace taking long walks with the Source of his Being and all those dear to him who have also left this world."

May his soul rest in peace.

Augusto Pinto