The Adventures of a Soldier's Wife

Book excerpt: IRELAND -  INDIA -  ENGLAND1915 – 1974A story based on the memoirs of Pte. Sarah Kathleen CunninghamA TRILOGY– entrusted to and written by Joe P. Plant1915. The true story of a young Irish Coleen. Sarah, eldest daughter of the Cunningham family. Exasperated by the drudgery of her home life, volunteers to serve in the Army. An adventure which is to change the course of her future life. Demobbed in 1919. Meets, falls in love with a young veteran of the war, her Gallant Sergeant Jack Plant. They court; due to the Troubles their marriage is almost a disaster, but that’s just the beginning? Seven postings later, a posting to India.1929 they sail to Bombay. Breakfast in the Taj Mahal gives Sarah a false image of her future life? After a four-day train journey, arrive in Nowshera. Sarah inherits 28 servants who only speak Urdu. During her stay Sarah endures loneliness, despair, illness, miscarriages, a birth, frightening escapades of her tribe, wild animals, the king cobra, visits to hill stations, a chance meeting with Kitty – a lifelong friendship provides amusement. They return to Blighty, the birth and death of Peter, more babies. Jack’s demobilisation; due to the pending war, his recall. Later a traumatic period, evacuation, her eldest daughter Mary contracts TB. During the London Blitz bombed out, necessitates a move to a Lancashire cotton town. Her eldest son is sent to the war in Burma. They return to a devastated London and rationing. What will happen next?