Major Reid

In the novel Absent in the Spring, Major Nobby Reid is a man who lived in Baghdad. He was an acquaintance of William and Barbara Wray. A scandal forced him to leave Iraq and go to East Africa. Neither Barbara nor William wanted to talk with Joan about him.

Some time later, while at the Alwyah Club, Joan heard a woman say that Nobby went to Uganda, after an illicit affair with a woman.