My Wifes's Dog and Other Stories by Roderick McLeod

 

    Short stories written in the 1950's by a global traveler and war veteran. From catching crooks in Singapore and head shrinkers in Borneo to ralley driving in the Dolomites to meeting Italian prisoners of war captured in East Africa. Here are brief tales with snappy endings.

    Roderick Murdoch McLeod was born in Featherston, New Zealand in 1917. His father was the local policeman. During W.W.II he served in the Black Watch, a Scottish regiment. He was posted from France to Iceland, and out to East Africa to train for jungle combat and completed his war in North Borneo. Returning to Britain he went up to Merton College in Oxford to complete his education and was recruited to work in Kenya in government service.

    In his early teens Roderick went to sea initially as a stoker, and then as a steward visiting Pacific Islands and returned to try his hand as an apprentice mechanic in General  Motors and Ford in New Zealand. Later he went to sea again visiting Africa, Hawaii and America and countries en route. He jumped ship in Galveston, and found work on the oil fields in Texas and tried his hand at automobile assembly in Detroit for Ford. In the mid 1930s visited London hooking up a theatrical crowd and some medical students in South London. 

The call of the old country drew him north to Skye and Altandhu to discover his Scottish roots. He was toying with the idea of trying to enter medical school in London.  When war broke out in 1939, he signed up as a private to join the Black Watch, a Highland regiment, and his first assignment was to serve in France where his regiment formed the rear guard and most of whom were captured after the evacuation of Dunkirk. His experience allowed him to train as a first aid officer, and he was posted to the beach where he could assist those with tourniquets. There he was wounded taking a bullet in the kilt. After being evacuated across the channel and a delayed recovery, he was posted Iceland until the American take over in 1941. 

From there he was posted with his regiment to East Africa to prepare for jungle warfare and the south-east Asian push. He served in India as the reinforcements of Calcutta were made, in Malaya during the evacuation of Singapore, and spent the rest of the war in Malaya and North Borneo. He was demobilized as acting Colonel in charge of supplies.

Returning to Britain in 1946 he applied to Oxford and was matriculated at Merton College in 1947. He returned to British Government service in Kenya in the 1950s where he was stationed until 1958 then he returned to England where he taught drama until he retired to Lancing on the south coast. His collection of mid 20th century experiences were captured in the short stories he wrote in Oxford and Kenya while receiving instruction from the London School of Journalism. They have never been previously published.

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