Page 249 - Leadership in the Indian Army

some consternation, but Prem was unperturbed. He ordered the bar in the
mess to be closed, and the entire stock of liquor distributed among officers,
for safe-keeping. The residence of one of the officers, which was near the

mess, was earmarked for socialising. Since there was no ban on drinking in
one’s residence, this solved the problem. Before parties, everyone would
‘call’ on the officer, and be suitably ‘entertained’. Afterwards, the entire
congregation would walk over to the mess for dinner.
After some time, when their stock needed replenishing. Prem discovered
that liquor could be obtained if a doctor certified that it was required on
health grounds. Orders were promptly issued to all battalion commanders to

send the men on sick report to the military hospital, and request a
‘prescription’. A roster was made to ensure that sufficient ‘prescriptions’
were obtained, and these were kept centrally and used to replenish the
dwindling liquor stock. As a result, while the rest of Poona was dry,
Bombay Sappers remained relatively ‘wet’.
In 1954, Prem was posted to the Staff College at Wellington as the Chief

Instructor (Army Wing). The Commandant was Major General W.D.A.
Lentaigne, who had achieved fame in Burma, with the Chindits. He had
taken over from Brigadier S.D. Verma, who had moved the Staff College
from Quetta to Wellington in October 1947. He remained the Commandant
for over seven years, from March 1948 to May 1955. ‘Joe’ Lentaigne, as he
was popularly called, brought up the Staff College during its fledgling
years, and gave it the unique character and ethos for which it is well known

even today. Prem was the fourth Chief Instructor (Army Wing), having been
preceded by Leslie Sawhney, H.C. Badhwar and S.S. Malik. The first thing
he did was to scrap all existing exercises and replace them with new ones.
When the fresh course started, the students got a shock. Most of them had
come armed with solutions to the previous exercises, since these were
rarely changed. Another new innovation was the introduction of outdoor

camps. The earlier practice was to go to the exercise area in the morning,
and return to Wellington in the evening. Apart from the expense, a lot of
time was wasted in travelling. Prem decided to establish a camp in the
exercise area, where everyone stayed in tents until the exercise was over.
Joe Lentaigne once remarked: ‘He is the best CI this college ever had, or is
likely to have. I predict that Prem will become the Indian C-in-C in time.’
In June 1956, Prem was invited to the Victoria Cross Centenary

Celebrations in the UK. The Royal Air Force offered to airlift all the