He was a very independent little Scot, wanting no help, and
quite able to take care of himself. We arrived at Bristol in bitterly
cold weather, and the boy, who had been five years in Jamaica, had
only his tropical clothing. We left him on the platform of Bristol
station, a forlorn little figure, shivering in his inadequate white
cotton shorts, and blue with the unaccustomed cold, to commence his
battle with the world alone, but still declining any assistance in
reaching his destination. That boy had a brief, but most distinguished
career. He passed second out of Sandhurst, sweeping the board of
prizes, including the King's Prize, Lord Roberts' Prize, the Sword of
Honour, and the riding and shooting prizes. He chose the Indian Army,
and the 9th Goorkhas as his regiment, a choice he had made, as he told
me afterwards, since his earliest boyhood, when Rudyard Kipling's
books had first opened his eyes to a new world. That lad proved to
have the most extraordinary natural gift for Oriental languages.
Within two years of his first arrival in India he had passed in higher
Urdu, in higher Hindi, in Punjabi, and in Pushtoo. Norman Kemp had; in
addition, some curious intuitive faculty for understanding the
Oriental mind, and was a born leader of men.
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