Lt Col John Cross (rtd) lives in Nepal and is in his fifth decade of CIOL membership.

He speaks a great many languages – including some very rare ones as you will read below – and has had several books published drawing from his 99 year life with languages, published by Pen & Sword Books https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/J-P-Cross/a/870.

In a significant personal milestone John will turn 100 years of age next year.

In 1962 I was sent on an operation below the Thai-Malay border to try to build trust with the Temiar people after 20 years of them being variously oppressed, harassed and courted by different interests.  No Commonwealth army had had any success during this time.  I realised that the main reason was lack of genuine person-to-person contact and engagement, and general fear of officialdom. 

Before going part of the way by boat, and having some command of languages, I spoke Malay to the Staff Captain, Hindi to the boat contractor and also had a go at his driver in Cantonese for being late!

I learnt enough Temiar to get the senior headman to lend me the use of his brother, son and chief contact with the guerrillas. His stipulation was that only I, and a party of Gurkhas the size of a guerrilla group, could go. No jungle boots were allowed (we had to wear the same footwear as the guerrillas so our tracks would not be suspicious if guerrillas did see them, provoking considerable loss of blood from leeches) and no airdrops were allowed for resupplies.

We had three back-to-back operations, for 52, 70 and 80 days - having no resupply we had to eke out our rations, each of us carrying a much-too-heavy load and making one kilogram’s weight of food last for six days for the whole period of 202 days. At the end I was so weak I could not walk, but I became a ‘one-man cabaret’ show with the children who festooned me, laughing; men came to me for advice; and some asked me to live with them as their kids seemingly obeyed me! 

The next year I was detailed as Commandant Borneo Border Scouts at the time of Indonesian Confrontation: my mandate was ‘you personally are responsible for the people along the border.’ I had no staff. I was on the move for 11½ months of the year, and one time was so tired I slept from 9 pm on Wednesday till 6 am on Friday.

I upgraded my ‘mainland’ Malay to Borneo Malay, learnt some Jagoi and enough Iban to speak and lecture in Iban. My Cantonese was seldom of use but when it was, it was! 

However, talking with and making the children laugh made families, mothers and fathers feel that we were on their side. Which is why the Institute’s motto ‘Universal understanding’ is so apt. As was a constant in my Army career - languages break down barriers and build bridges between people like nothing else.

Views expressed on CIOL Voices are those of the writer and may not represent those of the wider membership or CIOL.