Message #136307

[Bianca]

Adamson's second trip to Egypt could not have been more different: a non-stop, five-hour, British Airways club class London-Cairo flight, on which he was tended to by Mrs. Lally, pampered by smiling airline hostesses, and, in Cairo given the red-carpet treatment by the Hilton hotel: rooms complete with fruit, flowers and a view of the Nile.


Driving into Cairo from the airport, Adamson said it seemed like only yesterday that he had patrolled the city's streets. He easily picked out landmarks, even in the dark, reeled off street names like a Cairo taxi driver, and regaled us with his exploits as a young military policeman 60 years before.


On his first, lone patrol in Cairo, he said, he got lost, and a search party had to be sent out from Bab al-Hadid Barracks to find him. Friday nights, he recalled, were the worst, when British and Indian troops went on a ritual pay-day spree and the entire military police force had to be turned out to control them.


As such rough-and-tumble duties did not appeal to him, Corporal Adamson was more than happy to be transferred to the more sedate atmosphere of the British High Commission, where he met, for the first time, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon and the wealthy patron of Carter's so-far-fruitless search for the tomb of Tutankhamen—and where he became involved in dangerous "special duties," which eventually led to his assignment with Carnarvon's expedition.


One of these duties was to escort a young Egyptian student named Hassan 'Ali, who was on trial - and later convicted and hanged - for hurling a hand grenade at the prime minister, Nessim Pasha. Later he also served as a bodyguard for Court President General Lawson during the so-called "Cairo Conspiracy Trial" of leaders of the nationalist opposition Wafd Party. That assignment, Adamson recalled, led to his transfer. "Your face is too familiar for your own good," General Lawson said when the trial ended. "I think it would be better if you were posted away from Cairo."


Two days later his name appeared on Regimental Orders to the effect that Corporal Adamson is promoted to the rank of acting sergeant and is to proceed immediately to Luxor and report to Mr. Howard Carter, c/o Lord Carnarvon's expedition, Winter Palace Hotel.