CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF AIR COMMODORE M.S. SHAPCOTT'S

DAUGHTER, DEIRDRE (10/11 YRS OLD) - 1952-54

My father, Air Commodore M S Shapcott, was posted to the Canal Zone in the early 50s. He was AOC of 206 Group in Abyad, MEAF 15. This caused total disruption to our family but after 18 months my mother and I sailed on the troopship Empire Fowey to Port Said. My older brothers were boarded out with friends in England as they were all in high school and my father did not want their education interrupted. I was only 8 years old and still in primary school.

On arrival in Port Said my father was piped on board and we were the first off the ship in a little rubber ducky boat. There were a lot of Egyptians in boats trying to sell items to us. We called them Gully Gully men.

My father’s car (a Humber Hawk) was waiting for us and we were driven down by the side of the Suez Canal and all you could see was sand on one side and ships going down the Canal on the other side, and donkeys walking around in circles to bring up water from large wells, until we arrived at our future home – RAF Fanara. As I was a child I had no idea we were the Occupying Force at the time and everywhere we went we were escorted by an armed driver and escort in the car, and armed escort jeeps in front and behind our car. We were very privileged and hated by local residents.

I can’t remember much about that but the very next day a nanny who was working for the family next door asked my mother if she could rake me to the beach with the little girl she was caring for. I was allowed to go and spent the afternoon on the shores of the Great Bitter Lake – the nanny didn’t give me a hat or any sunscreen and after a few hours there she took me home. Of course, I got badly burned and had to go to Fanara hospital. I don’t think I had sunstroke but I remember being in agony and having been covered with calamine lotion for many days. Another time I was bitten by some insect which caused my leg to swell up to three times to its normal size. When it started healing I had a hole in my leg about the size of a halfpenny and I still have the scar.

I attended Fanara Junior School with the other children of my age. Their parents had been serving all over the world. Of course, I made friends and my best friend Laura lived in Kasfareet and when I visited her I was taken to that camp in my father’s car with escorts and guns etc. but his flag wasn’t on the front indicating that he was travelling. One day we were left in the care of our chef, Abdul. Laura and I were playing ‘hide and seek’ and when I found her hidden behind a door she jumped down and her shirt caught a big piece of metal which hit her on the head. It immediately started bleeding a lot and Abdul called the nearest medics and we were taken to hospital. When we got there the pristine white front seat was bright red. It was a very small injury but it bled a lot.

Gosh, what a privileged life. Our house was on the shores of the Great Bitter Lake and we had our own private jetty at the end of our garden where we used to go every afternoon. I learnt to swim in a few days because the water was so salty you simply couldn’t sink. We had a raft to swim out and play on and also an old motor boat which was anchored nearby. The cabin contained lots of water and I was too scared to go down there by myself – a bit eerie.

It was fantastic watching the ships pass each other in the Bitter Lakes before continuing on their journey up or down the Suez Canal. The water was so clear that we could just hold a piece of string with a hook on the end and you caught a fish. I used to just do this for fund and thrown them back but when we found a wild cat had had kittens and her nest was in a hedge outside out house, I took a few home for her and her family.

Everyday life was routine. My father was picked up daily and taken to RAF Abyad. My mother was appointed Vice President of SSAFA and attended various meetings and I just went to school in the mornings and spent the afternoons swimming . I used to walk to school with a friend, Sheila, who lived just down the road. Her father was a Squadron Leader. Because I had been educated in England and was in a class with children who had lived in various countries and had had a disrupted education, I came top of my class in every subject, and still have a Report to confirm it. The Headmaster was a man called Mr. Hollier. When I came back to England I really landed with a bang because as a student I was very, very average.

My father’s driver, Corporal Baldry, also worked in our garden and I used to go out and help, or hinder him, and he gave me a lovely jigsaw for one of my birthdays of the counties of England, the pieces being in the shape of each county with their main towns highlighted. I learned later in life that some of the counties had changed their boundaries. For instance my father was OC at Burtonwood which was in Lancashire and now it is in Cheshire!

At home we had a chef – the first was a Syrian named Abdul – and then an RAF Cpl Hussy, an RAF batman Mac and an Egyptian servant Mohamed. When my parents had lavish dinner parties for RAF personnel and numerous foreign visitors, Corporal Baldry used to act as a waiter. Each morning I used to be served breakfast, by myself, at one end of a rather long table. No wonder I put on weight.

While we were there my father had two ADC’s, the first named Flt Lt Tony White, who accompanied us on holiday to Ein Sukna on one occasion, and then Flt Lt Bangay – I used to call him Bangay the Beast.

When my brothers came out for their summer holiday we used to go down to a resort called Ein Sukna – I think it was in the Gulf of Suez or the Red Sea. There were no brick or wooden buildings – all tents for everything. The beach was incredibly stony but the sea was crystal clear and I have still never seen anything like it. The fish on the reef were absolutely amazing colours and weren’t bothered by us being there either snorkelling or in glass bottomed boats. One day a brother was snorkelling and a shark was spotted but he didn’t hear the alarms and a boat had to be sent to pick him up. We took coral out of the reefs – didn’t know it was wrong and my parents, when retired in England, had the coral and a clam shell in their front garden for about 20 years before they were stolen.

On another of my brother’s trips, two of us were in a canoe in Fanara Wharf and didn’t realize that we were preventing a flying boat from taking off. We had to be moved on. The local fishermen used to empty their nets on the beach and left loads of sea horses that had been caught on the net floundering on the beach. Instead of putting them back in the water, we were too young to know, we took a couple home and covered them with nail varnish when they died. I am so ashamed of having done that.

My brothers, Harry and John, were lucky to be taken by Colonel Peter Lord and his wife on a trip to Cairo and saw the pyramids and sphinx etc. I wasn’t allowed to go as it was considered too dangerous. They had a very frightening attack by locals who fired at them but luckily they managed to escape.

When it was meal time when the boys were there we all sat down at the large dining room table. We used to change places every few days. My mother was served first, then my father, and then the one of us who was served to my mother’s right. We used to say that the last person served was in starvation corner, as my brothers were hearty eaters and there wasn’t much left for the last person.

I joined the Brownies in Fanara and it took 6 months for a uniform to arrive from the UK. We hada few swimming galas and I did quite well and I won a small cup at Kasfareet (which my mother being Vice President of SSAFA presented to me), and two medals at other galas, which I still have. The Coronation was in 1953 which I don’t remember anything about – suppose we didn’t have a television, but I heard that all the children in the UK were given a propelling pencil as a souvenir but we weren’t given one. My son went on-line a couple of years ago and found one and gave it to me for my birthday. It is among my treasured possessions.

We went on holiday to Cyprus one year and travelled on a naval corvette. I can remember climbing up the ladder to the deck. We stayed in The Dome Hotel in Kyrenia. The chef baked me a cake for my 11th birthday and it was horrible, all cream, nuts and icings etc. We climbed up the 1000 steps to St Hilarion Castle and I still have a plate and ornament which I bought there. We met with RAF friends from Egypt while we were on holiday.

Occasionally we went to the shops in Ismailia. We went into a local shop in Fayid and there was an unwrapped ‘mummy’ on view. I have never forgotten it and still remember what it looked like and I have been fascinated with Egyptian history ever since.

I have been lucky enough to go back to Egypt and see the pyramids, Luxor etc. but was booked in later, March this year (2020), for a cruise to go up the Suez Canal through the Bitter Lakes to Cairo, Alexandria etc. but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to the ‘virus’.

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