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BBC 'Who Do You Think You Are.'
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Post BBC 'Who Do You Think You Are.' 
WDYTYA
In one of the current series due out in September (could be the 6th ) ,there is a strong Malay element to it. The celebrity -ugh concerned is an actor, Alan Cummings. Who ? That's what I said when told. The Malay part of his family background concerns his late grandfather ,Police Lieutenant F Darling of the Malay Police Force, who met his death in a most bizarre way (not CT related ) in a 'coffee shop ' in Chaah, a village in Johore. With me joining the Malay Police after the incident had occurred ,I did not know P/Lt F Darling or anything about him It was only after I had left Pahang and was serving with No10 Police Jungle Company based at Chaah, that I heard from a number of different people ,the strange circumstances how he was killed . To give the programme some Malay/jungle atmosphere and to find out more about P/Lt F Darling ,a film crew from the company who produce WDYTYA flew out to Malaysia . I'm informed that that film crew when in the 'jungle,' thought it was, extraordinary that Brits could fight and exist in such conditions,and that they the found it eerie . Ah ! the poor lambs ,I wonder what they would think if they were there for any length of time.

Roy Malay/Malaysian Police

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Post Re: BBC 'Who Do You Think You Are.' 
Follows wrote:
WDYTYA
In one of the current series due out in September (could be the 6th ) ,there is a strong Malay element to it. The celebrity -ugh concerned is an actor, Alan Cummings. Who ? That's what I said when told. The Malay part of his family background concerns his late grandfather ,Police Lieutenant F Darling of the Malay Police Force, who met his death in a most bizarre way (not CT related ) in a 'coffee shop ' in Chaah, a village in Johore. With me joining the Malay Police after the incident had occurred ,I did not know P/Lt F Darling or anything about him It was only after I had left Pahang and was serving with No10 Police Jungle Company based at Chaah, that I heard from a number of different people ,the strange circumstances how he was killed . To give the programme some Malay/jungle atmosphere and to find out more about P/Lt F Darling ,a film crew from the company who produce WDYTYA flew out to Malaysia . I'm informed that that film crew when in the 'jungle,' thought it was, extraordinary that Brits could fight and exist in such conditions,and that they the found it eerie . Ah ! the poor lambs ,I wonder what they would think if they were there for any length of time.

Roy Malay/Malaysian Police



Or that at some point you just might run into some very nasty people

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Post Who Do You Think You Are 
'Wall to Wall', the company that produce the WDYTYA series informed me today, that the programme about the family history of Alan Cummings, which contains an interesting Malay element, is to be shown on BBC1, at 9 pm Monday the 13th September.

Roy
Malay /Malaysian Police.

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Post BBC WDYTYA 


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An excellant programme well written and filmed it had a closeness being a fellow Scot, it took me back 46 years,

when first we met the "ULU".

Thanks for bringing to our attention.

Aye Yours,

Cameron

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Such was the regard that the Malay people had for police Lt Darling, that they named a park and road after him.

Pity the authorities in England didn't hold him in the same regard and charged a £4 carriage fee for his effects, at Liverpool.

The revelation of his accidently taking his own life was stunning. Something that his family will have to come to terms with, and is a sobering reminder to all of us of the sacrifice, not only of body, but of mind this country expects us to take, then calmly dismisses us without a thought for those who have survived.

Can anyone correct me, but wasn't that the Victory medal ribbon on his MM?

Arthur R-S



Last edited by Arthur R-S on Tue Sep 14, 2010 4:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Post p/lt cummings 
Saw the programme, exellent, it showed how his mind must have been affected by what he'd been through in ww2 and after. Not only did his family have to pay£4 carriage fee for his effects, his family did not get a pension because his death was not attributable to the war orthe emergency.I think his family can consider themselves very hard done by.
Arthur I also thought there was something amiss with the MM,but could not put my finger on what, the old gray cells packing up I suppose

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Post grey cells 
Dear Whalley,

The memsahib reliably informs me to tell you to wash your hair in new blue Daz - apparently, it forces grey out and forces white in. There you go = anyone else got any problems the memsahib can advise on?

Yours aye

Arthur R-S

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Post WDYTYA 
When I was based in Chaah , I was told on more than one occasion, how P/Lt T Darlings' game of Russian roulette went tragically wrong. The 'coffee ' shop where it happened, like all those in villages throught out Malay at the time were not quite up to Starbucks standard.
Most would only have earthen pounded floors, and it would not be unusal to see chickens scratching around running in and out. These so called 'Coppy Shops' sold more liquor than coppy/coffee. From all accounts, P/Lt Darling and acouple of others were enjoying a drink in the coffee shop, which I was told their tipple was a little stronger coffee. At some point P/Lt Darling started to play R R , and after he had done it twice, he accidently knocked his revolver off the table where they were sitting ,onto to the floor. It was when pushing his luck for the third tiime, that it ran out .The reason the so called safe theory of R R then went wrong, was when his revolver fell onto the floor ,the chamber being wet from liquid split on the table ,picked up debris. On spinning the chamber the debris acted as a brake ,stopping it when the cylinder with the loaded round was in line with the barrel .So when P/Lt Darling held the weapon to his head, squeezed the trigger he sadly ended his life .
In the programme , I was surprised to see a photograph of group of Malay Police including myself along with four dead CTs which was taken outside Chaah Police Station .These CTs were four members of the Chaah MCP Branch Committee , with one being its leader.
Roy.

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Exactly Roy, re the coffee shops. They were usually situated at roadside drop-off points for rubber tappers who loved a coffee well laced with rum before going to work....or at least that is how I recall things after some 53 years. I was not aware of P/Lt Darling's story until last evening but I do recall a night at Batu Cantonment when I was on a duty of some kind along with the duty armourer. I went down to his den and we whiled away the time playing around with the weapons in his charge. It was the first time I came across the Stirling which replaced the Sten, and then he explained the Russian Roulette game, possibly with a Webly. "It's all to do with GRAVITY", he told me, and spun the chamber time after time to prove that a single round in a well oiled revolver always chose to drop beyond the level of the barrel. Small wonder I'm going ga-ga when reminded of such moments and detals from a time I no longer have a real grip of.

Mike.


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Post Re: grey cells 
Arthur R-S wrote:
Dear Whalley,

The memsahib reliably informs me to tell you to wash your hair in new blue Daz - apparently, it forces grey out and forces white in. There you go = anyone else got any problems the memsahib can advise on?

Yours aye

Arthur R-S


Many thanks for the advice from the memsahib, Arthur I will try that on the few grey hairs i have left wherever they be.

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