An Indian Remembrance.

A letter arrived at Eastfield a few weeks ago (in February 2011) from India, containing a photograph of a Perkins Diesel Technical Course held from 11^th October to 10^th November 1954 in Madras. There was no accompanying letter and only a scrawled address to identify the sender as a Mr. Swaraj. The Postal Department passed the package on to the Heritage Group, hoping that it would be of some interest.

David Boulton examined the picture and quickly identified that one face was familiar – that of W P Edwards, usually know as Fred, who in his latter time worked in Field Test but was part of the group of expatriates supporting overseas operations. In fact the caption identified him as Works Manager for Simpson & Co. Ltd., Madras at that time. Although Fred died some time ago, David knew that there was still contact with his widow and thus the photograph was of more that archive interest. From the heritage viewpoint there are few other pictures in the files from overseas service schools, although such group pictures were a weekly event at the Peterscourt training facility.

A letter of thanks was sent to Mr Swaraj in Mysore in early March and less than two weeks later an e-mail response was received, giving a little more history of this picture. It was found in a house rented out by Mr Swaraj to a Mr Santhoji Rao who died 7- 8 years ago. On clearing the house for renovation the picture was found, but rather than scrapping it Mr Swaraj found the address for Perkins and sent it to England.

He commented that the name of Perkins in not well known today in India, although he knew of it because his father had renovated a 1932 Dodge car and fitted it with a P6 engine, since the chassis had been without a power plant when found in a scrap yard!

An interesting pair of pictures, as can be seen below. Fred Edwards is fifth from the left, seated in the front row. On his left is seated Mr R E Rawlings (Ray?), identified as Perkins Resident Inspector, and on his right Mr K P John, identified as Technical Instructor for Simpson & Co. Ltd, Madras – the Perkins licensee. The remaining Indian personnel are identifies by name from all over India, with Mr Santhoji Rao third from left in the back row.

© David Boulton - Perkins Heritage Group. March 2011.