Page 18 - Sirmooree Digital Book

OBITUARIES
Lieutenant Martin Stane Boswell
Martin Boswell, who died on the Isle of Wight on 1 September 2012
aged 86, served in the 2nd Goorkhas shortly after the Second World War.
He was born on 13 December 1925 in London, where his father worked
for the BBC, and he went to Bedales School, Petersfield. He had started
to read Agriculture at Reading University before he enlisted in August
1944.
After training in the General Service Corps and The Bedfordshire and
Hertfordshire Regiment, Martin went to the Officer Cadet School at
Bangalore and was gazetted to The Royal West Kent Regiment on 7
April 1946. He was immediately seconded to us and while completing
the usual young officer’s training in Dehra Dun, he was sent as an
umpire on an All-India Combined Services Exercise at Allahabad.
Later he joined the 4th Battalion in Calcutta where, during the difficult
and dangerous process of splitting the sub-continent and its
institutions between India and Pakistan, Hindu and Muslim, he
commanded a platoon guarding the Watt Gunge area of Calcutta
docks. He enjoyed playing football with his platoon and developed
their love of the game.
After leaving the Army in 1948, Martin worked in farming and was
also a bargee on the Grand Union Canal delivering goods between
London and Birmingham. After marrying Miss Norah Knight in 1950
they purchased a ten-acre smallholding and when it had grown to 50
acres they acquired the tenancy of Mersley Farm with 139 acres at
Newchurch on the Isle of Wight. As innovators and pioneers he and
Norah developed a flourishing sweet-corn business and grew garlic for
which their farm and the Island became famous.
Martin had wide interests but he was particularly devoted to natural
history and archaeology which included his great collection of pre-
historic flint tools. He was also a keen follower of the Isle of Wight
Hunt and later a member of the Isle of Wight Beagles.
We send our deep sympathy to Martin’s widow, Norah, and their two
sons and two daughters and their families.
DRW
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