It Seemed Very Ordinary

Colonel Hugh Pettigrew

Every now and again in my research I come across lives that are anything but ordinary. One such was the late Colonel Hugh R. C. Pettigrew, who was the chief staff officer (GSO1) to Major General Punch Cowan in the fabulous 17th Indian Division in the final year of the war. I captured some of his insights in the fighting in A War of Empires.

Over the years I have come to understand something of this remarkable man and his life and service during the the dying days of empire. His life encapsulates that of many such colonial servants and soldiers. Born on the 5th of May 1912 in Shiraz, Persia, he was the youngest of six children. His father - William Pettigrew - ran the Persian operation for the Indo-European Telegraph Department in Persia. In 1895 he married Ada Lancefield Blackman but died in 1915 while held captive in Ahram, a primitive fort of the Tangistani tribesman in south Persia, near Bushire. His father’s death and experience is described in On the Frontier and Beyond: A Record of Thirty Years' Service (London: John Murray, 1931) by Colonel Fredrick O’Connor.

The Graphic periodical in 1897 published this fascinating article on Hugh’s extraordinary aunt.

Hugh’s mother is the lady on the right; her sister, on the left, married Abdullah Hussein Khan

At 18 Hugh Pettigrew was sent to Sandhurst as a King’s India Cadet, like his three brothers before him. He was largely self-taught but managed to passed out the Royal Military College 34th out of 174. The only regret he had at Sandhurst was not winning the Norman Gold Medal issued to the top student entering the Indian Army. This medal went to his best friend, Hugh Rance. Pettigrew always claimed it was his inability to ride that cost him the medal. He was commissioned into the Indian Army in 1932. He was attached to the Gordon Highlanders, first on the Khyber Pass then with them at Peshawar, from 1932-33, after which he joined his Indian Army regiment, the 2nd/14th Punjab Regiment, at Mir Ali, Kohat, and then Bannu, on the Indian North West Frontier, where he served between 1933 and 1937. During this period he discovered that the regiment really wanted him for his skills on the hockey field, and he found himself playing with Dyan Chand who is, even now, considered the greatest hockey player of all time. He always said it was the greatest privilege to play with “the great man”, firstly at inside right and then as centre half and captain for nearly 5 years.

Dhyan Chand sitting to Pettigrew’s left

In April 1937 he joined the South Waziristan Scouts, being first posted to the first wing in Sararogha. He served in Waziristan until 1938 where he was involved in many actions against the Mahsud tribesman, which he described in Frontier Scouts (1964). He arrived on the day the Mahsuds attacked a convey, which became known as the Shahur Tangi ambush. His future father-in-law, Brigadier Frank Maynard, who was stationed at Bannu as commander of the Bannu Brigade, and later commanded the Waziristan Division, knew immediately of this ambush but did not tell his daughter Patricia until he knew Hugh Pettigrew was safe.

In 1939, after marrying Patricia Maynard, he re-joined his regiment which was stationed near Dacca, now the capital of Bangladesh. It was here that he had a piece of great good fortune. Despite being adjutant of the regiment he was appointed as a Company Commander and instructor at the Officers’ Training School in Belgaum. His regiment was sent to Hong Kong where their fight with “the Japs”, as he referred to them, may have cost him his life or, at best, to have become a prisoner of war. He was then sent to be Brigade Major of the 63rd Indian Infantry Brigade in the Naga Hills at Kohima, and then to Imphal, from February 1942 to July 1943. Fascinatingly, he climbed Mt Japfu while on exercise in Kohima. As Brigade Major he was responsible for establishing intensive training methods in jungle warfare to ensure that the Brigade was ready to fight the Japanese. He then became an instructor at the Staff College at Quetta (until December 1944) with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before being appointed GSO1 to Major General ‘Punch’ Cowan of the all-Gurkha 17th Division (“The Black Cats”) from December 1944 to June 1945. This period of time is described brilliantly in his memoir, It Seemed Very Ordinary (2017).

On Mt Japfu, 1943

After Burma he served in Army HQ Delhi in the Directorate of Weapons and Equipment, when Field Marshal Auchinleck was C-in-C, and was promoted to full Colonel. In 1947 he retired from the Indian Army and returned to England.

Like many retiring army officers Hugh Pettigrew then became a school master, firstly as a partner and Assistant Head Master at Town Close House School in Norwich, and then at his own school in Selsey, West Sussex, coaching children for the Common Entrance Exam for entry into British private schools. He then undertook private tutoring until he retired in 1980.

Hugh and Patricia Maynard had six children: Paul (b.1939), Mark (b.1942), Jane, their only daughter (b.1944), David (b 1947), Clive (b.1950) and Jeffrey (b.1952).

His passion was writing. Although he never had the success of his direct contemporary, John Masters, I can attest to the quality of his writing in both the Frontier Scouts and It Seemed Very Ordinary. His private papers are in the Imperial War Museum, which also include an oral account given to them in 1994.

Hugh Pettigrew died in Wimbledon on 18th of April 2001. His ashes lie near the top of Great Gable in the Lake District. I never met this remarkable man, but feel that, through his writing, that I know him.