SYNOPSIS

“Trina’s Story”

The Naga Queen

A story of two remarkable people, love, their children and comrades, a war, heroism, humour, scholarship, and a cruelly oppressed people.

Sources, “The Butterfly Hunt” a Radio 4 play, by Mathew Solon and “The Naga Queen” a Radio 4 feature by John Horsley Denton.

Other reading “Naga Path” and “The Hidden Land” by Ursula Graham Bower, The Official War History, “The Reluctant Major” and “The Forgotten Major” by Major David Atkins,” Return to Kohima” by McPherson. “Defeat into Victory” Field Marshall the Viscount Slim,K.G.,K.C.M.G.,D.S.O.,M.C , “The Jungle is Neutral”, “Elephant Bill” and other contemporary memoirs, and Books by Bernard Fergusson (Lord Ballantrae) & “War behind Enemy Lines” by Brigadier Julian Thompson.

This is a ripping yarn.

It is also a true story.

Of a young man who went to South India to plant coffee, joined the Indian Territorial Army and ended up in some of the roughest fighting of World War Two, and his wooing of an adventurous young woman.

Of a Roedean-educated debutante, rally driver, traveller & anthropologist who tiring of the “quiet life” of ambulance driving before the blitz, returned to India to continue her research, and ended up commanding native and British Troops in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese and was worshipped as a goddess by the Zemi Nagas. How she succumbed to the charms of a gallant British officer, married him after three weeks, raised two equally remarkable children and lived happily ever after.

When her mother died, Trina climbed into the attic of the thatched cottage, in the New Forest, in the south of England, which was the last family home. She began to sort through the mass of papers and family archives finding photographs and not a few gruesome artefacts, all clues to her parents’ colourful lives of which she already knew quite a lot.

At the age of eleven Trina had been visited at Butterstone, her prep school in Scotland, by her parents and four sober suited Naga tribesmen. They had sought out her mother, Ursula, now raising her family, writing and farming with her husband on the Island of Mull off the West Coast of Scotland. They had escaped Indian State oppression of their peoples (the Nagas are in fact several groups or tribes inhabiting the Naga Hills on the North Eastern extreme of India and in fact also spanning the Burmese border) to ask her mother to help them plead their case with the western world.

In 1939 Ursula Graham Bower had travelled to the North East of India again, (She had visited the year before). This time having raised funds (at least in part by using her dress allowance) to do anthropological work for the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford.

Meanwhile Tim Betts was planting coffee in Southern India and was in the Indian Territorial Army.

Nagaland is on the very north-eastern edge of India, not really part of the Sub-Continent at all. Students of the “Forgotten War” will know Kohima, the scene of the heroic defence (across the Governor’s Tennis Court) of the “Gateway to India”, and Imphal the site of General Slim’s great victory that finally put the Japanese on the run, are at its heart. The forty or so tribes are as has been said, of Mongolian stock, fiercely proud and unswervingly loyal friends in two World Wars.

In the late 1920s a 16-year-old Naga rebel called “Gaidiliu” had led a revolt against the British, and as she was arrested said that she would return in an unrecognisable form. So when a white woman of about the right age arrived in the Naga Hills more than a few locals were prepared to make the connection and to worship her as a Goddess (to her considerable embarrassment). Experiencing a strange sense of deja vu she felt immediately at home and stayed for seven years (to the intense disapproval of society ladies in Calcutta). With a travelling dispensary she won the Nagas’ trust and was known as “Katazile” (the Giver). All her research and much of her original colour film survives and is either at the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford or in the Asian Archive at Cambridge University.

It was at this time she acquired her chief assistant and bodyguard; “Namkia”. Not only was he invaluable in recruiting the Naga’s, and winning them over to her side and exceptional protective of Ursula, but he proved to be an excellent comic foil cast in the Dickensian role of “Wemmick” to Ursula’s “Jaggers” or “Sam Weller” to her “Mr. Pickwick!” There are many tales of their excursions to civilisation with Namkia in tow, either giving the game away to troops who would be asking Ursula if she knew who the Naga Queen was? Or perhaps securing additional accommodation on very crowded trains when dressed in full Naga finery talking about the need to eat his children in a famine! He was fiercely loyal, and his ultimate approval of Ursula’s husband, was “The Sahib is all right” He was rewarded by the British at the end of the fighting.

In December 1941 Pearl Harbour was bombed by the Japanese, and Great Britain declared war on Japan in reciprocity for the United States formally declaring war on Germany, in Franklin Roosevelt’s famous “Day of Infamy” Speech.

The war came to South East Asia. The Japanese swept down through Malaya, capturing Singapore and hundreds of thousands of allied troops and civilians, beginning what was to become one of the most inhumane regimes and treatment of prisoners anywhere in the whole conflict of World War Two. Then they started their advance through Burma and Thailand, heading for the Eastern Gateway to India, only to be stopped, at Kohima and Imphal, in the centre of Nagaland, by General Slim’s 14^th Army. (The Forgotten Army).

Lt. Colonel F. N. (Tim) Betts was mobilised and soon found himself controlling troop movements. A man of action, he rapidly “excused himself” from this arduous and essential but very dull work and joined “V Force” a clandestine operation winning the hearts and minds of the native troops in the battle zones gathering intelligence, organising escape and evasion, and offering a firefighting defence force also. His camps were over-run more than once and finally he had to walk out arriving at Kohima the day before the defence began. He walked more than 200 miles, much of it in bare feet, and was on the point of giving up when a Naga woman found him and gave him some rice and meat, this gave him the strength to go on!

After much needed rest he rejoined “V Force for the duration.

Meanwhile, Ursula found herself literally in the front line. Her area being between Kohima and the railhead. She was soon hard at work organising the troops in retreat, treating the wounded and feeding them before passing them back down the line for hospitalisation or much needed “R & R”. Much of the time was spent running a Feeding Station and First Aid Post. Allied pilots, who had been shot down, or soldiers in retreat over the Burmese border were fully expecting capture and torture at the very least and were even more alarmed when the fierce looking Nagas (who were known to have been head hunters!), charged down on their wrecked planes or their bivouacs. Alarm turned to wonder when they met Ursula and her Naga helpers who cared for them and then sent them back for treatment or debriefing.

It was the American Pilots who named her “The Jungle Queen” and the British who changed it to “The Naga Queen!” The Americans even ran a comic strip cartoon about her, (an early “Modesty Blaise”?). No doubt the legend was further spread by the ever faithful Namkia!

She wanted to do more and with the help of the redoubtable ““Uncle Bill” Slim” she started “Watch and Ward”, a forward defence and intelligence gathering operation, (a localised “V Force”). It was General Slim who declared “We must support Miss Bower”. When that most loved of all Generals finally met Ursula he declared himself relieved that she was not a “missionary in creaking stays”! Having asked his ADC to “send in the missionary type!” The Nagas who had served on the Western Front in 1914-18 pledged their loyalty to the British and to Ursula in particular, She became the only female combatant in the Indian Army; and is certainly still the only woman to have had formal combat command in any army anywhere. They were supplemented by Gurkhas and British NCOs and Ursula was made a Captain. The group within “V Force was called “Bower Force”.

Despite her statements to the contrary it is certain that Ursula played a very active part in the prosecution of the war. - She wore out two Tommy Guns!- Her acquired skills were subsequently put to use after the war moved on, in training allied air-crews in survival, escape and evasion in the unique terrain of that war. This is further supported by the fact that the Japanese put a very substantial price on her head, something that she took in a rather matter of fact way, and took steps (with Namkia) to deal with should she be faced with inevitable capture.

The heroic defence of Kohima where Nagas played their part and Slim’s Great Victory at Imphal have had their stories told if not fully. Most are not aware that it is at Kohima’s main War Cemetery a Naga Stone is erected and on it were carved the words “When you go home, tell them of us and say, it is for your tomorrow we gave our today”.

The war moved on and “V Force” and “Watch and Ward” were put on standby and finally disbanded.

Tim Betts had time on his hands and had been under family pressure to settle down. He had surprisingly never met Ursula, but like every one else he had heard of her. The Naga Hills are famed for their flora and fauna, especially the butterflies. He applied to his C.O. for two weeks leave to go to the Naga Hills to hunt butterflies. (Sub-text, to meet and woo the Naga Queen!). A very brave undertaking, given the well-earned reputation of her bodyguard! It was the monsoon too! He nearly gave up. At the railhead he sat down and drew straws. One; she would be horse-faced harpy. Two; she would be a peach but wouldn't have him. Three; she would be a peach and would have him. It came out at three, so he set out on foot. Perhaps it as well that when he arrived Ursula was not carrying her Tommy Gun but was baking a cake!

She was somewhat bemused (Not knowing the plan of his campaign, only the deception!). When he seemed to spend little time Hunting Lepodoptera but rather too much time hanging around the camp, at a time she wanted to write up her notes, a task that had been interrupted by the Japanese!

He did it! The final objective of “V Force” had been achieved!

At first Ursula wanted to wait six months, but a few weeks later they were married in Shillong. The war had come to a much earlier end than predicted by all but “those in the know”, due to the dropping of The Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus saving untold suffering by allied prisoners both civilian and service, and combatants on both sides. This no doubt backed up by the Mills family (very old friends and who very much approved) helped to speed up the process, together with an imminent posting for Tim who had yet to be demobilised.

After the war Tim took a job on the Indo-Chinese border, a trouble spot if ever there was one. As District Commissioner he and Ursula were responsible for keeping the locals “on message” in this largely unexplored region, (there were no maps!) it was no picnic and in many ways more taxing than their separate wars which had both been “hard ones”. Tim, for instance had to make a rule never to try a murder before breakfast! More than once trouble between the various local factions put them in serious and physical danger, and required all their accumulated skills of dealing with native hill tribes. They left after the partition of India and the independence of India and Pakistan. They returned to the ice-cold winter of 1948, rationing and the experience that many an ex-patriot feels of being a stranger in your own but foreign land. Tim was very ill indeed with the infestation of various tropical diseases he had caught during the war and afterwards, and that had been improperly "cured". Ursula’s health was better but she felt shut in after the wild places that they had known for so long.

Eventually Tim recovered and they moved to Kenya to grow coffee. At first Ursula wanted to study the Masai Tribes but was denied permission, Trina was born, and the Nagas greeted her birth by giving her a Naga name, “Haihangile”, which means one hundred times welcome, they also contrived to deliver a beautifully embroidered Naga shawl across three continents. Then came the Mau Mau uprising a neighbours young son a play mate of Trina's was killed, and it was a trouble spot too many for Tim and Ursula with their much loved daughter.

And so the family moved to Mull, an island on the West Coast of Scotland, to farm. Hill farming is not an easy life either!

Trina’s sister Alison was born on the way to Mull.

In the sixties they “retired” to the New Forest to be close to Ursula’s ageing mother.

When Britain pulled out of India 50 years ago they effectively handed over the Naga Territories to the Indian Government. The Nagas were indignant. They were not Indians. India had never conquered them. So, why were they now subject to Indian Rule? India meanwhile was very fearful of the Nagas’ desire for independence in such a politically sensitive stretch of land; it did after all form a useful buffer zone between India proper and the outside world. Bribes gave way to force and Nagaland was closed off. Even now entry is only possible after complex negotiations and for very special reasons. Mark Tully the journalist, broadcaster, writer and expert on South Asia (and coincidentally Tim and Ursula’s nephew) has never been able to visit Nagaland, although one can get permission today for a pilgrimage to the War Graves at Kohima.

So in the early 1960’s four Naga leaders went to Scotland to find Ursula, begging her to intercede and persuade the British Government to help them. At Ursula’s request David Astor (an old family friend, and Editor of the Observer), sent a young reporter up the Irrawaddy River in disguise to Nagaland to verify the stories. Sadly they proved all too true. Equally sadly in the interest of “Commonwealth Relations”, which were at the time very difficult with the newly independent colonies all feeling their new freedoms and powers, and the South African debacle just beginning, nothing was done by the British Government.

To Ursula’s everlasting frustration she could do little for the people that had adopted her, and done so much for the British and their interests.

The Nagas meanwhile formed a Government in exile in England, and continued to lobby on the human rights platform both within the United Kingdom and internationally.

Trina, who grew up with other peoples memories of battles fought and won or lost, in the late1980s persuaded the Nagas to smuggle her into Nagaland still a forbidden land in the back of a jeep! She was treated royally and saw and heard for herself the struggle to preserve the Naga way of life against progress and oppression. Shocked by what she saw she returned to tell her mother, Mother was furious she felt usurped, but ultimately it brought them very close together. Shortly afterwards Ursula died and at her funeral in the New Forest two of the pall bearers were Naga Warriors, the others were Burma Star Veterans. At the wake Trina resolved to take on her mother’s mantle and to do what she could for these wonderful people. One particular scheme is a much-needed road of some 15 kilometres from one of her mothers’ villages to the State Highway, to enable the fragile local economy to prosper. Others include local dispensaries, continuing one part of her mother’s work among the Nagas.

Footnote:-

Tim Betts died of a stroke out riding in the New Forest in 1973.

Tim had in fact been on leave fishing in Norway when war broke out with Germany, and after an adventurous journey to England tried to join up. But he was Indian Army, and after a further series adventures returned to India to join his regiment. It is not possible to read his war diaries, and his other diaries of the time, without the impression of a “gentle giant” who loved nature and field sports, a man of action with a strong sense of duty; very very brave, who was a reluctant soldier but determined to do whatever he did, very well. In fact a typical Wychamist! He mentions in his diaries several months before the “Butterfly Hunt” that Miss Bower “might do him very well for a wife”!

Ursula died in 1988 of a heart attack.

Ursula was made an M.B.E. in recognition of her efforts (Some may say this is little reward but she was a very modest woman).

She was also awarded the Lawrence Medal, given in memory of T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). Other recipients include: Orde Wingate the Chindit Leader and early teacher of guerrilla warfare, Glub Pasha, the Leader of the Arab Forces during and after World War Two, Lord Hunt conqueror of Everest, and other people distinguished in Asian Affairs.

Her Naga bodyguard, Namkia, was awarded the B.E.M. Which he wore proudly at the wedding of Tim and Ursula, at the Anglican Church in Shillong in the autumn of 1944.

The story of the meeting of Tim and Ursula has been told in a radio play “The Butterfly Hunt”.

Ursula’s obituary was published in the newspapers and was the subject of an hour-long radio feature, scripted by John Horsley-Denton and produced by Chris Eldon-Lee.

A play, by Chris Eldon-Lee, was performed by the pupils of Shrewsbury School. It was called “The Naga Queen” and the audience who had enjoyed the ripping yarn of a play was very surprised at the end to be introduced to Ursula’s Daughter in her regalia as a “Naga Princess”!

Ursula herself wrote two books of her time in North Eastern India “Naga Path” covering the pre and war years, and “The Hidden Land” covering the time she and Tim spent after the war. Both were “Best Sellers”. Major David Atkins in his books the “Forgotten Major” and the “Reluctant Major” describe some of Ursula’s valuable work and the part “V” force played. Field Marshall the Viscount (Bill) Slim’s books and histories, also cover this in some detail, recording the vital and unique role the “Bower” and “V” Forces made to his turning “Defeat into Victory”!

One cannot help but think that two such brave, individualists and adventurers who hated dullness and boredom were made for each other, and had not fate put them in the way of each other they would probably have remained single!

More recently Major General Julian Thompson has written a book for The Imperial War Museum, about the Second World War “Behind Enemy Lines” Using the official histories, the following is a verbatim extract from the section covering Burma and the Far East.

“ In April 1942, Wavell, by now back in India, ordered that a guerrilla organisation be formed to attack the Japanese lines of communication should they invade Assam from Burma. V-Force as it came to be called, was built around platoons loaned from the Assam Rifles, and augmented by some 1,000 hill tribesmen. The Assam Rifles were a force of five military police battalions maintained by the Assam Government, and composed of Gurkhas commanded by British Officers seconded from the Indian Army. The Japanese did not follow up their initial successes in the conquest of Burma until 1944 with their offensives in the Arakan, Kohima and Imphal. Consequently V-Force’s role was changed to intelligence-gathering, and maintaining the essential line of outposts ahead of the main British Units, roughly along the line of the River Chindwin.

A remarkable young British woman played a key role in raising a similar group of Naga Tribesmen. She was not the only British Person to perform this service, but certainly was the only woman. Ursula Graham Bower came of an old service family, and had been educated at Roedean. She had hoped to go to Oxford, but her family disapproved of University “for girls” and so she was brought an Aston Martin Sports car, and allowed to travel first, to Canada, and then to India. She went to Nagaland before the war, engaged on ethnographical work. She had some Red Cross training, could lance boils and apply dressings. She established a remarkable rapport with the Nagas, who had a truly fearsome reputation as head-hunters. She remembered:

“I had a camp which was built for me. It was on a spur outside the village. But in order to see the village ceremonies I had to live inside the village perimeter – that is within the ritual centre of the village. And they would only agree if I would agree to be bound by the Zemi (one of the branches of the main Naga tribe) Law and not to stand on my rank as a European. So I agreed to that and it worked out extremely well. There I stayed for some years. You walked everywhere. It was walk or die.”

When war broke out she was in England, but managed to get back to Nagaland and joined the Women’s Auxiliary Corps (India) (WAC(I)) in 1942. In August 1942 she started a “Watch and Ward” scheme in Nagaland.

“It was set up by an ex-Assam Rifles man, a Gurkha Officer called Rawden Wright who had returned from Britain. He had a World War One wound which made him extremely lame. He should never have been allowed in. But he managed to talk me into (allowing) it. His personal courage influenced the Nagas enormously. He refused to be carried – he said he was a soldier. If he died in the road he was not going to be carried. He told me what was wanted. He went back and reported, and I got various papers and instructions. We recruited from the villages which we had decided upon as forming a screen; anything from five to ten men in selected villages which covered passes and key points – fords and main trackways. As a result of the strain he put on himself, poor old Rawden Wright died three weeks later.

These (Watch and Ward) were intelligence scouts. At first they were very reluctant – it wasn’t their war. They just wanted to be left alone. So I talked it over with Namkia (interpreter and leader) and said that I didn’t think that they would be able to stay uninvolved. Because if the Japanese were coming through, they would come through our area and the whole area. Eventually – and I think it was the sight of the British Troops (the wounded particularly) that certainly influenced Namkia and his people – they decided to come in. It took a long time to get their confidence and get them going. We had to be very careful to fulfil all our promises about arming them, and giving them the authority and paying them and all the rest of it. I must say the Army did keep its promises, (due to Bill Slim).

We were armed for our own protection. Twenty rifles, two tommy guns and my sten. Plus 150 muzzle loaders and shot guns. I carried a kukri,( a gurkha knife/machete of fearsome reputation!) a sten gun and a pistol. My father was a keen shot. I learned to use a rifle when I was twelve. I started on a .22, and while he was in the Navy he gave my brother and me training on the standard service rifle, the Lee Enfield .303. I could use a shotgun and an automatic pistol.”

The Army’s administration was somewhat dilatory at times:

“Some time in late autumn they forgot to send us our usual ration money. They forgot to pay me. I wasn’t at the time getting any rations. By the time I had paid the men, 150 of them, I was left with exactly 30 rupees (£2.10shillings) to keep myself and a dog until something turned up. I did 150 miles a month in mountain country. I lost three stone in weight. Eventually some money came through, after which I got Captain’s pay!”

Her job was to collect information on the Japanese. Before she was given a radio she sent messages by runner. She also decided that if the Japanese looked like coming close, she would not run away.

“If I ran, I knew the Nagas would never hold. That’s why I had to stay. But it had its problems. There was no hope I could conceal myself in the Naga Village. First of all I am too tall, and light skinned, my hair was sun bleached, I was blonde, obviously a European. In Burma when British officers had occasionally hidden the Japs tortured the villagers intil the officer gave himself up.

I fixed it with Namkia (her chief bodyguard) that I wasn’t going to be taken alive. So I would shoot myself, and he would take my head in if the pressure on the villagers got unendurable. But it never came to it for which I was devoutly thankful;.

The Army wanted to get me out. No women were being left within range of the Japanese., after the massacre of the nurses in Hong Kong all women were evacuated (from Assam). All the nurses were evacuated from Imphal.

From April 1944 a wireless (radio) network was laid on, by the 14^th Army. There were four posts each with a signaller and a man to back him up. It was called Bower Force.”

When the Japanese assault on Imphal and Kohima (the administrative capital of Nagaland) began:

“We were suddenly in the middle of no man’s land utterly bewildered, hardly armed. Sharing no man’s land with an unknown number of Japanese. The siege of Kohima was going on. The Japs were all over Imphal Plain. We had a very dodgy three weeks, not knowing what was going on in front of us, but trying to find out and pass intelligence back.”

She was sent a personal bodyguard of half a section of Assam Rifles, followed by Lieutenant Bill Tibbetts of V-Force. He took over the operations side and she covered personnel, administrative and intelligence staff work. After the siege of Kohima was broken, she got permission to throw her OP screen right forward towards Imphal Plain to find out what was happening there. They stayed there for May and June. From here they were able to get intelligence back from within Japanese-held territory, a distance of about thirty miles,”three days walking”, according to Ursula Graham Bower:

“If there was any prospect of bumping the enemy, and we thought we had Japs on our immediate front, and heading towards us, we simply patrolled in military order: a Naga scout 50 yards out in front, and possibly another but not always. Then the first half of the patrol with an officer, and a 50 yard gap, and the second half of the patrol with an officer which in this case was generally me. We went very cautiously along the track or bridle roads, hoping the scout in front would see the enemy first and double back to us. We would take up ambush positions and hope to catch the Japs unawares.”

Then they got orders to retreat. It was thought the position was too “dodgy”, in her words. She remembered that there were instances of collaboration with the Japanese by some tribes:

“There were two main tribal groups, (in Nagaland): the Nagas and the Kukis. In 1917, during the First World War the Kukis rose against the British and were put down with some trouble. But by the Second World War, the British had forgotten this and recruited Kukis for the Assam Rifles because they thought they were better material than the Nagas. The Kukis who had rebelled in1917 went over to the Japanese almost completely. Again V-Force was recruited more Kukis than Nagas were picked.

When my Husband (Lieutenant Colonel F. N. (Tim) Betts whom she married at the end of the war)(The Butterfly Hunt!) was down on the Chindwin in 1944, in V-Force, his scouts were almost exclusively Kukis. He discovered when the Jap advance began his men had been in touch with the Japanese all the time. They betrayed his whereabouts, his food dumps everything. They led them to his camp. Fortunately he wasn’t in at the time!

There was one village that was friendly to the Japs. They took (accepted a bribe)

Of 100 rupees to bring the Japanese my head. After the shouting was more or less over, Bill Tibbetts and I were touring that area. We came through the village which clearly had a very bad conscience, We had our Assam Rifles with us. I think they were afraid we were going to take reprisals. There was no point in doing that. The Headman refused to appear at all. A very nervous young man appeared with a bottle of rice beer and a chicken, and sat looking at us with terror. I was tempted to point out that I was in possession of my head, and the Japanese were not, could I please have the 100 rupees which I felt was due to me!”

“Watch and Ward” was wound up in November 1944, by which time Imphal plain had been clear for some time. To their delight, the Nagas were allowed to keep their shotguns. It was also at this time that Colonel Betts decided to go butterfly hunting in the Naga Hills! Ursula Graham Bower then found that:

“V-Force arranged for me and a team of Nagas to train RAF personnel in jungle survival. They were faintly surprised at my teaching them survival and ambush techniques. The clearing where the camp was was right on top of an Elephant Trail. We used to take the men out into the jungle and practise stalking and hunting techniques. One day I found a large bull elephant in the middle of my class. We tiptoed away!

At the end of my course the aircrew were taken out in a jeep and dropped off in the jungle about 20 miles away with a compass and emergency rations. They were taught that if you happen to meet a tiger he is probably not hostile. He wants to be left alone. If you hear a deep growl in a thicket, turn round and creep away. He won’t interfere with you. One party of two walked in on a tiger, there was a growl in the thicket, and they did creep away. After that the reputation of the instruction went up a lot.

Later, General Sir William Slim (as he then was- Later Field Marshall The Viscount Slim-) paid tribute to:

“The gallant Nagas whose loyalty, even in the most depressing times of the invasion had never faltered. Despite floggings, torture, execution and the burning of villages, they refused to aid the Japanese in any way or betray our troops. Their active help was beyond value or praise. Under devoted leadership of the very highest quality they guided our columns, collected information, ambushed enemy patrols carried our supplies and brought in the wounded under the heaviest of hostile fire. No soldier of the 14^th Army will ever forget that, nor will he ever think of them except with admiration and affection.”

Trina and her sister Alison were both educated at Roedean, like their mother, before attending University. (Ursula believed very much in education, having been denied her own chance to go to University).

Trina studied Biology and works in Conservation Publishing; she also writes and broadcasts on the environment. She is married, and continues to help the Nagas wherever and whenever she can. Two Nagas attended her wedding in January 1999, together with at least one Burma Star Veteran. (They startled her new husband by suggesting that he was now a Naga Duke of Edinburgh! They also presented him with a Naga shawl properly only worn by those who have taken a head!).

Trina and her husband David had their marriage blessed in the same church (Now the Cathedral!) that her parents were married in, in 1945. On the 6^th of October 1999. It was a very moving occasion, attended by representatives of all the Naga Tribes some of whom at the age of 70 had walked for two days to a road, to catch a bus for a 36 hour ride on unmade roads through land slips caused by the late monsoon. The younger Nagas interpreted traditional dress in their own way, the long wrap round dresses in beautifully and delicately hand woven fabrics had been slashed to the waist, the heels were high, and the tops left little to the imagination! The Service itself was very moving, the reading being from Ruth (thy people are my people) read by Trina, The Corinthians Passage (on love) read by a leading Naga , and Psalm 121 (I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills) read by David, this is also on Tim & Ursula’s grave in the New Forest. The Hymns were “How Great Thou Art”, and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. Plus a special song written by the Nagas and sung in the Naga Style. And “Jesus Bids Me Shine, in the English Style but sung in the Naga Tongue, all very moving. They were also able to find her parents entry in the register for the 10^th of July 1945! The party afterwards was, well a PARTY! Trina holding court for three whole days to various deputations from the many villages. Most moving were the people from the three villages Ursula had actually lived in, one of which was where she and Tim had had their Naga Wedding Celebration. David and Trina were showered with gifts, a real Naga Spear for David and hundreds of Naga Shawls and dresses each one individually made representing some months work, and in financial terms at least one months income! Plus a truly wonderful carving of a Naga Woman, and not least a traditional basket worn on the back for Trina to carry the firewood and shopping in!

Trina has several practical projects in hand to help the Nagas in a practical non-political way, roads and education to enable an already sustainable economy to thrive.

Trina and her husband hope very soon to visit the areas that her parents loved so much.

Alison is a senior lecturer in Archaeology at Sydney University in Australia. She specialises in the Middle East and Asia Minor. She organises and leads digs in these regions, and lectures all over the world.

The struggle for the Nagas and other tribes of the hill areas from Tibet to India and along the Indo- Chinese, Burma and Thai borders (including the rather more publicised Karens) continues, and is the cause of concern to all. A parallel can easily be drawn with Bosnia, Kosovo, the Middle East or indeed rather closer Northern Ireland. Especially as the trouble seems now to be in part inter factional, with the “Old Enemy” the Indian Army, the welcome peace keeper! The Nagas accepted that they were governed by India some time ago.

These people need and deserve the help of those who helped them without question and at great cost, when Great Britain her Empire and Commonwealth were in mortal danger.

After the wedding celebrations, Trina was finally able to arrange to visit her mother's three principle villages in February and March 2000. It was hard going each village involving a four day walk in near vertical jungle terrain but with spectacular views. The palanquin ride for the last few miles was more than welcome and very spectacular! The taxi ride for a few hundred miles from Guwhati to the start of the "walk in," was exciting, on top of Indian Country roads she was escorted by Indian Police armed to the teeth, sirens blazing, handed on from section to section, as it was "Bandit Country" the Police had no idea of her mission and of course their presence made the journey more hazardous! A Naga escort would have been absolutely safe but was out of the question untill she reached The Naga Hills! The Nagas in one village created a special dance of welcome, which they insisted in teaching her, she retaliated by teaching them Strip the Willow and Sword Dancing, so future anthropologists may wonder how the (former?) head-hunters of Nagaland came to do Scottish Country Dancing! She was able to endow a fund to provide, dispensaries, a road, and a bridge on a work for food basis, to help the economy grow. This is especially essential as the Pan-Asian Highway from Japan to Arabia will pass within a few miles of Southern Nagaland's villages. She will be returning in 2001 to raise a memorial stone to her mother and father in one of the villages and to move the various small projects along! She will also be preaching a sermon!

When Trina returned it was to the launching of her husbands new Dragon Class Racing Yacht, called naturally enough "HAIHANGILIE", a Naga Tribesman was there in full robes! The rest of the Dragon Fleet were suitably impressed and Haihangilie has proved to be a very fast boat already.

Subsequently David and especially Trina together with a Leading ex-patriot Naga were interviewed by John Peel for his Home Truths programme on Radio 4 when they spoke of the problem of being and being married to A Goddess in a Christian Society!

There is hope of a book or a film, to at least in part, fund the help for the Nagas and the peoples of North East India. There is also a plan to do a documentary of Trina, retracing here parents footsteps in the North East. Visiting the villages, meeting the people who were her mother’s scouts. Some of who are still alive.

There is a plan to re-publish Ursula's two books as one volume topped and tailed by Trina with a link chapter as well.

Trina is doing a programme this autumn with Sue Lloyd-Roberts for the BBC correspondent series on BBC 2 Television of her retracing her parents