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MEMORIES OF DULWICH
Alan Reid Pilot to a Prime Minister By Sunil Gupta (72-78)
I was nine years old when Mr Alan Reid kept me back at the end of morning science class, I knew I was in trouble. He asked me if I knew who Jawahar Lal Nehru was, the first prime minister of India. I did happen to know because my parents would talk about Nehru and how they would have preferred me to go to Harrow School (Nehru went to Harrow). Fortunately it didn't matter because Dulwich was nearly, but not quite, as good! Alan told me that he was Nehru's pilot in 1947. I couldn't understand why he was telling me this at the time, it seemed such a passing comment. Anyway I was late for lunch so I stopped listening. Fast forward 45 years to the 15 August 2017 and it is now the 70th anniversary of Indian independence from British Raj, and there is considerable BBC coverage of the anniversary, notably more than the 50th. The British media are more comfortable to cover The Partition of India, the British Raj, and inevitably the associated atrocities. This triggered the rusty cogs in my brain and I remembered that story from Alan. Surely it wasn’t true and it was my imagination. I had to contact him to find out. The Alleyn Club put me in touch with Alan, we spoke over the phone and he encouraged me to see him as soon as possible as he wasn't well and he didn't know how long he would last. Two weeks later I drove to Bath to have lunch with Alan. He recounted the fascinating story of how he had indeed been the pilot to Nehru and was the British Royal Air Force pilot from the AHQ Air Headquarters Command unit in India, charged with the duty of flying Nehru and his party to Palam Airport (New Delhi) on 12 August 1947 to finally take back control of India at midnight on the 14 August 1947 after more than 200 years of British and indeed Mughal rule. It was a pleasure to see Alan again after so many years and hear these fond memories.
Sadly Alan Reid passed away on the 13 September 2018. Alan was a pupil from 1937-1942 and returned to the College as a member of staff from 1969-1984 teaching Chemistry. He is survived by his widow Margaret and his sons Andrew, Alastair and Stuart.
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