Description
Object description
Five well written ms letters (22pp) by a private in HQ Company, 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry to his brothers, including describing his journey out to India (n.d. [1942?]), life on board ship, social activities, winning a tug of war competition against the RAF, his shock at the death of a friend (October 1942), a long letter (December 1943) describing in detail the famine in Bengal and how it was reported in India and abroad, with eyewitness accounts of the situation in Bengal and Calcutta, soldiers giving their rations to starving people, the measures taken to relieve the situation and his views on the causes and the response, and his move to A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, SEAC, a letter written in Burma (April 1945) telling of patrolling in the jungle, the generosity of the local people, the poor rations, the flies and other wildlife. Together with one ms account in diary form entitled 'Impressions of 31 days leave in Agra' dated November – December 1942 (53pp, some pages missing), describing his leave, a trip round Delhi, the journey to Agra, details of the soldier's home run by the Soldiers and Airmen's Christian Association where he stayed and of the people who were also on leave there, the bazaars, the food, trips to the Taj Mahal, social activities, visits to the cinema, his disgust at the conditions the poorest Indians live in, meeting American soldiers, a poem about his friend 'Darky' Chantry, and the red tape involved in getting their pay and train tickets back to their unit.
Content description
Five well written ms letters (22pp) by a private in HQ Company, 1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry to his brothers, including describing his journey out to India (n.d. [1942?]), life on board ship, social activities, winning a tug of war competition against the RAF, his shock at the death of a friend (October 1942), a long letter (December 1943) describing in detail the famine in Bengal and how it was reported in India and abroad, with eyewitness accounts of the situation in Bengal and Calcutta, soldiers giving their rations to starving people, the measures taken to relieve the situation and his views on the causes and the response, and his move to A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, SEAC, a letter written in Burma (April 1945) telling of patrolling in the jungle, the generosity of the local people, the poor rations, the flies and other wildlife. Together with one ms account in diary form entitled 'Impressions of 31 days leave in Agra' dated November – December 1942 (53pp, some pages missing), describing his leave, a trip round Delhi, the journey to Agra, details of the soldier's home run by the Soldiers and Airmen's Christian Association where he stayed and of the people who were also on leave there, the bazaars, the food, trips to the Taj Mahal, social activities, visits to the cinema, his disgust at the conditions the poorest Indians live in, meeting American soldiers, a poem about his friend 'Darky' Chantry, and the red tape involved in getting their pay and train tickets back to their unit.
History note
Cataloguer SJO