PLOUGHBOY’S RISE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 35, 4 November 1933, Page 18

PLOUGHBOY’S RISE

Hard Work and Romance

A British “Tommy," who, as a boy was taken from school'at the age of 1to follow the plough, has made himself a master of Persian and Hindustani, married an aristocratic Japanese girl, and secured an appointment os Official Translator and coach for the higher examinations in Urdu for officers in the Indian Army., ■ That is the romantic life story told by Mr. Judd, the son of a Norfolk agricultural labourer, who is now stationed he “ After finishing with lessons, at 12,” he said, “I worked at the plough until I- joined the Army. “In IHX.O I came with my regiment to India, and I have never had an opportunity of going home since. I found I had an aptitude for languages and began, in my spare time, to study Hindustani and Persian. “In the War I saw service is Mesopotamia and my knowledge of Persian enabled me to make myself useful as

an interpreter. “Meanwhile, I read a lot find I came to have a great admiration for the Japanese. and I began to dream of marrying a Japanese wife,” After the-war, through a Christian mission in Japan, Mr. Judd got into correspondence with a Japanese girl belonging to a noble family, who had been “cut off with a shilling” because she adopted Christianity. . She'was a "uiversitv graduate, and earned her living as a teacher. They became engaged, still without seeing each other. When they met at Calcutta they were married within an hour. Meanwhile, Mf. Judd had passed the higher standard in Urdu, and earned a prize of £3OO. hitherto accorded only to officers. After their marriage they were desperately poor for a time, but Mr. Judd •‘won through” at length to achieve his present position.—Reuter.