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A LITTLE bit of Britain, or rather Britton, is missing from Bahrain ... now that one of the longest staying expat couples in the kingdom has returned to the UK.
Malcolm and Moreen lived in the same apartment in Gudaibiya for more than 40 years, raised a family, became active members of the island's community and shared a life time of happy memories to reminisce over during their coming retirement years in Cardiff.
They have witnessed at first hand and played a part in the incredible growth of Bahrain and promise one thing to the friends they have left behind ... "we'll be back!"
Malcolm's move to Bahrain came about after he responded to an advertisement in the Daily Telegraph for the position of 'Assistant Engineer in the Electricity Department in the Sheikdom of Bahrain' and was offered the position.
He arrived in Bahrain on February 23, 1965, on a BOAC flight on a VC10. After living in temporary accommodation with a colleague from the accounts department he moved into the Government flats known as 'Quarantine Flats' which was going to be "home" for a lot longer than he could ever had imagined.
They had been built in 1954 and were situated opposite the jetty that had been used as the landing point for the Imperial Airways flying boats on their way from the UK to India and Australia. The remains of the medical building are still alongside the flats although the outlook changed considerably over the years with the land being filled as Manama developed.
Soon after he arrived a small number of nurses moved into both the middle flats and a combination of fate and a flood delivered Cupid's arrow straight into his heart.
He explained: "One day on returning from shopping I could hear the sound of water coming from the spare bedroom. In entering I saw that part of the bedroom ceiling was hanging down and water was pouring from the flat above.
"After breaking into the upstairs flat I found a tap had been left on, a washbasin overflowing with water and the whole area flooded.
"I managed to contact nurse Moreen Scott, who was on duty as a midwife in the maternity hospital, to explain the error of her ways. We met and later went out to dinner together."
A year later they married at the American Mission Church.
In 1968, their first child Gareth was born and daughter Kathryn arrived the following year and the couple instantly faced the calamitous side of family life.
Malcolm recalls: "Gareth's scalp had been badly grazed in the delivery and so when I first saw him he had a dressing on his head.
"This was the first of many accidents and medical emergencies that he was to have in his childhood. When he was about six-months-old he rolled off a dressing trolley onto the floor which resulted in a fracture. His leg was in a plaster splint for weeks."
However, in 1970, it was Malcolm's turn to need medical treatment. He was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis, an infectious bacterial disease affecting the lungs. "It felt like the bottom had fallen out of my world," he said. "It was decided that I should be treated at home. Moreen had been a TB nurse in Canada and so knew the regime.
"My bedroom was cleared out and she 'barrier nursed' me for the next four months. I visited the hospital each week for check-ups and to collect medication. The children were not permitted into my room and so I communicated with them through the window onto the veranda using china-graph pencils.
"When it was clear that I was not infectious I started back to work for an hour or so each day, increasing until I was back working full time."
The British Government's 'East of Suez' policy brought changes to the region with the withdrawal of British forces and the replacement of the British Political Agent by an Ambassador. In 1970, a State Council was established in Bahrain to replace the existing Administrative Council. The Bahrain State Electricity Department was absorbed into the newly-formed Department of Development and Engineering Services.
In 1971, a power station at Alba was brought into service and integrated into the Bahrain network and Malcolm was heavily involved in the planning aspects - one of many behind-the-scenes missions he and the team carried out as the kingdom expanded and prospered.
His son Gareth continued to be in the wars. "When he was about four he fell off his tricycle, ran his hand over the mudguard and cut it deeply. He had to have a number of stitches in the palm of his hand," said Malcolm.
"The following year, early one morning he had been playing with some birthday candles and set his pyjamas on fire and suffered severe burns on his lower leg. The burns became septic and he had skin from his thigh grafted on the wounds. Part on the scaring was quite proud and had, over a period of weeks, to be chemically removed, which was somewhat painful for him.
"In 1973, Gareth was patting a dog, which was being looked after by a neighbour, when it turned on him and got his head in its mouth. There was blood streaming all over Gareth's head and he needed 48 stitches in his scalp and eight on his lower eyelid."
The unlucky lad came a cropper three years later at a beach near Malkiya. Gareth had climbed a tree to get down his kite which was caught in the branches. He fell out of the tree and suffered a compound fracture of his left forearm just above the wrist.
Sand had impacted into the wound and into the core of the bone. It took a very long time for the wound to be cleaned and the break set and stitched. A number of days later it was seen that the fracture had not set correctly and it had to be set again.
He was no luckier in the water. The desperate dad recounted: "We had spent a weekend camping and the children were playing on a speedboat just off the beach. I was cooking breakfast when I saw that Gareth had jumped off the boat but had got his bathing costume caught on a cleat and was being held upside down in the water. He was not able to get hold of anything to pull his head out of the water. I ran down the beach to lift him off and must have done 50 metres in a couple of seconds. Gareth had no scars from this incident but I did; I nearly had a heart attack!"
Fortunately Malcolm kept himself as fit as a fiddle by joining up with one of Bahrain's Hash groups - made up of people living in the kingdom who enjoy running and social networking. The activity enabled the couple to visit a number of Gulf countries to take part in inter-hashes events and a trip to New Zealand for the World Inter-Hash.
"Here 3,500 hashers from all parts of the world gathered to do what hashers normally do," said Malcolm. "We also went and stayed with friends in Sydney and toured the area."
In September 1979, Gareth and Kathryn went to boarding school in the UK.
Moreen said: "It was a very big wrench but the standard of schooling for expatriate children had not reached the standard that exists here today and so boarding school was the only way out."
Gareth remained a concern, of course. Earlier in the year he had difficulty in moving his legs. His joints seemed to have seized up. It was eventually found that he was suffering from juvenile arthritis, a condition in which the symptoms in his case were relieved by medication. He had to take six aspirins each day until he was 19 by which time he had fortunately grown out of the condition.
In September 1985, following examinations Kathryn moved to a boarding school in Cardiff to study for her A'levels and Gareth started at a catering college in the Welsh capital.
The couple decided that it would be better for the children if one parent stayed to offer support so Moreen returned to the UK for a couple of years.
She earlier had purchased a home for them adjoining the Cardiff Golf Club, in the northeast of the city, which is where they are now happily enjoying their retirement.
The children are prospering too. Kathryn obtained a degree in biochemistry and started work at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She worked for quite a while on the treatment of leprosy. Gareth took a post at the prestigious Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. Both now have successful careers and live and work in Edinburgh.
Malcolm said: "With the association of the hash we have been able to travel extensively and with the aid of local hashers visited places that tourists do not normally go.
"In Bahrain we had replaced our natural family with a group of friends with whom we had become very close and at work I enjoyed the camaraderie of my colleagues and established very close relationships. These we are going to miss very much and will be irreplaceable."
