Stalky's Reminiscences

Why would an ageing American like me, with no military service, be eager to read a 1928 book named STALKY'S REMINISCENSES by a British Major-General named Lionel Charles Dunsterville (1865 - 1946)? Because Dunsterville was the fictional Stalky in STALKY & CO., Rudyard Kipling's tales of his school days as the 1870s turned into the 1880s spent at United Services College (USC), at Westward Ho! on the North Devon Coast. And STALKY & CO. is one of my very favorites by Kipling. *** Dunsterville is close to invaluable for recollected background on then recently founded (1874) USC; for his own and Kipling's days and merry pranks there; for the poor crop of entering students uncritically harvested by an inexpensive school with no waiting list; for that school's inevitable lack of tradition and the unruly confusion caused by its collection of masters from a variety of schools with clashing traditions; and for the greatness, seconded by Kipling and others, of founding Headmaster Cormell Price. *** Dunsterville wrote of Kipling's portrayal of Dunsterville: "Stalky himself was never quite so clever as portrayed in the book. ... But he represents ... one of the prevailing spirits of this most untypical school." *** Of both George Beresford (the third inseparable member of STALKY & CO.) and Rudyard Kipling the author said: "Beresford and I had our fair share of brains, but Kipling had a good deal more than his fair share, and added to it the enormous asset of knowledge -- intuitive and acquired" (Ch. 1, 'Childhood'). *** I began STALKY'S REMINISCENCES for nothing more than Kipling. I continued reading for Dunsterville, for his humor, his avoidance of name dropping (not even wife and children are named) and for the author's impressive way of framing through humor and under-statement a long and distinguished career soldiering in the Indian Army. Dunsterville followed in the steps of his grandfather (who served in the East India Company's formations) and father, both Major-Generals in the Indian Army. *** From STALKY'S REMINISCENCES I learned that Queen Victoria studied Urdu to communicate with her beloved Indian domestics and guards (Ch. 6, 'The Die-Hards'). A prodigious linguist (11 certified languages under his belt), Lionel Dunsterville is worth listening to on what makes a language unique: "Every language has its own peculiar little song in quarters of semi-tones; and correct grammar, idiom, and pronunuciation help one very little towards perfection if one has not caught the song" (Ch. 10, 'Germany and Russia'). Running an allied railroad line near Peking during the Boxer Rebellion, Dunsterville cleverly foiled without violence a German attempt to annex a small British plot of ground near the railroad station. "The matter got as far as being mentioned in Reuter's telegrams, and THE MORNING POST of Delhi referred to it under the heading 'Stalky Holds Up The Germans'" (Ch. 13, 'Railway Work'). *** STALKY'S REMINISCENCES is a minor classic of low-key humor and depiction of very human Britons, East Indians and others in times of war and peace. No wonder the book has recently been reprinted. -OOO-