Description
Object description
A collection of papers relating to his service as an officer in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) with 'E' Company, 5th (West Africa) Auxiliary Group, attached to 2nd Battalion Nigeria Regiment (1st (West Africa) Infantry Brigade, 82nd (West Africa) Division), in India and Burma (1944), including: a folder of official orders and other papers while serving with 637th Command (M) Transport Company RASC in Inverness (April – November 1943), including details of his posting (April 1943), courses attended, applications for privilege leave, being placed on the Lodging List, his orders to prepare for overseas service, details of his tropical kit, and his medical fitness for posting to an equatorial climate; a 1944 daily diary with detailed entries for January to June, and September, and occasional entries elsewhere, while in Freetown, Sierra Leone (January 1944), illness, sore throat, sailing to Lagos, Nigeria (February 1944), shopping in Lagos, familiarisation tours, lectures and training, battle school, joining 8 Platoon, 2nd Battalion NR in the Bush (March 1944), on schemes, marching, a storm wrecking the camp (May 1944), leaving Nigeria (July 1944), arriving in Bombay, India (August 1944), moving to Ranchi, then Fahilda camp, an inspection by General Auchinleck, and with brief details of his duties including orderly officer and pay parades, food, weather, films seen, church, letters written, his favourable impression of the African soldiers, a servant of his, learning Hausa, and illnesses he came down with; a Field Message Book (AB 153) containing notes on first aid, signals and messages, and copies of a pass and a charge sheet for Nigerian soldiers (March and September 1944), with the majority of the book being used as a Hausa vocabulary list; a ms notebook containing a Nominal Roll of the NCOs and other ranks of 12 Platoon, 'C' Company, 2nd Battalion Nigeria Regiment, with details of names, ranks, numbers, race or tribe (if known), as well as ms training notes about Auxiliary Groups, Rel Map Codes, formations, weapons, pay and allowances for Nigerian soldiers, Military Law, and Hausa words; a ms letter (2pp) to Shute by a Private Yakulu Makurdi of Group HQ, 5th (WA) Auxiliary Group, Nigeria Regiment (April 1946), thanking him for writing, and telling him that they were moving to Rangoon and were due to be discharged in June 1945; a ms letter (3pp) to Shute by John Adigo, writing from Makurdi Province, Nigeria (July 1947), thanking him for writing and telling him of his struggles to find work after leaving the Army, being robbed of savings, and giving news of joint acquaintances and the fighting in Nigeria between the Tiv and Hausa peoples in the Makurdi area; a Certificate of Appreciation for his services from the Parish of Gillingham, Dorset (1946); a copy of a letter (2pp) from Sir Eric Speed, granting him the honorary rank of Major (April 1946); a Release Certificate, Emergency Commissioned Officers – Regular Army (June 1946); a printed booklet 'Tribes In The Nigerian Military Forces Their Customs And Markings' (1943); two National War Front War Maps of the Main Eastern Theatre and Burma Theatre; a printed booklet 'Kashmir : Notes for Service Personnel Taking Leave in Kashmir'; a plan of the Jagannath Temple, Puri; a printed booklet 'Just What You Want To Know About The Shwe Dagon Pagoda' (October 1945); and photocopies of a photograph album (1944 – January 1946), with pictures from Sierra Leone and Nigeria (1944), Puri, India (January 1945), Comilla, Burma (February 1945), Tanlue Chaung, Burma, and showing officers and men, his men crossing rivers in Burma, his interest in the different African tribes in the Regiments, graves of officers and men, VJ Day celebrations at Kyaukmaungnama (August 1945), sporting activities, group shots of platoons, the band of the 5th (WA) Aux Group in Prome (January 1946), Dakotas resupplying by air, shots taken on leave in Kashmir, Taj Mahal, Srinagar, and portrait photographs of Shute in uniform. [The original photograph album is with the Photograph Archive].
Content description
A collection of papers relating to his service as an officer in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) with 'E' Company, 5th (West Africa) Auxiliary Group, attached to 2nd Battalion Nigeria Regiment (1st (West Africa) Infantry Brigade, 82nd (West Africa) Division), in India and Burma (1944), including: a folder of official orders and other papers while serving with 637th Command (M) Transport Company RASC in Inverness (April – November 1943), including details of his posting (April 1943), courses attended, applications for privilege leave, being placed on the Lodging List, his orders to prepare for overseas service, details of his tropical kit, and his medical fitness for posting to an equatorial climate; a 1944 daily diary with detailed entries for January to June, and September, and occasional entries elsewhere, while in Freetown, Sierra Leone (January 1944), illness, sore throat, sailing to Lagos, Nigeria (February 1944), shopping in Lagos, familiarisation tours, lectures and training, battle school, joining 8 Platoon, 2nd Battalion NR in the Bush (March 1944), on schemes, marching, a storm wrecking the camp (May 1944), leaving Nigeria (July 1944), arriving in Bombay, India (August 1944), moving to Ranchi, then Fahilda camp, an inspection by General Auchinleck, and with brief details of his duties including orderly officer and pay parades, food, weather, films seen, church, letters written, his favourable impression of the African soldiers, a servant of his, learning Hausa, and illnesses he came down with; a Field Message Book (AB 153) containing notes on first aid, signals and messages, and copies of a pass and a charge sheet for Nigerian soldiers (March and September 1944), with the majority of the book being used as a Hausa vocabulary list; a ms notebook containing a Nominal Roll of the NCOs and other ranks of 12 Platoon, 'C' Company, 2nd Battalion Nigeria Regiment, with details of names, ranks, numbers, race or tribe (if known), as well as ms training notes about Auxiliary Groups, Rel Map Codes, formations, weapons, pay and allowances for Nigerian soldiers, Military Law, and Hausa words; a ms letter (2pp) to Shute by a Private Yakulu Makurdi of Group HQ, 5th (WA) Auxiliary Group, Nigeria Regiment (April 1946), thanking him for writing, and telling him that they were moving to Rangoon and were due to be discharged in June 1945; a ms letter (3pp) to Shute by John Adigo, writing from Makurdi Province, Nigeria (July 1947), thanking him for writing and telling him of his struggles to find work after leaving the Army, being robbed of savings, and giving news of joint acquaintances and the fighting in Nigeria between the Tiv and Hausa peoples in the Makurdi area; a Certificate of Appreciation for his services from the Parish of Gillingham, Dorset (1946); a copy of a letter (2pp) from Sir Eric Speed, granting him the honorary rank of Major (April 1946); a Release Certificate, Emergency Commissioned Officers – Regular Army (June 1946); a printed booklet 'Tribes In The Nigerian Military Forces Their Customs And Markings' (1943); two National War Front War Maps of the Main Eastern Theatre and Burma Theatre; a printed booklet 'Kashmir : Notes for Service Personnel Taking Leave in Kashmir'; a plan of the Jagannath Temple, Puri; a printed booklet 'Just What You Want To Know About The Shwe Dagon Pagoda' (October 1945); and photocopies of a photograph album (1944 – January 1946), with pictures from Sierra Leone and Nigeria (1944), Puri, India (January 1945), Comilla, Burma (February 1945), Tanlue Chaung, Burma, and showing officers and men, his men crossing rivers in Burma, his interest in the different African tribes in the Regiments, graves of officers and men, VJ Day celebrations at Kyaukmaungnama (August 1945), sporting activities, group shots of platoons, the band of the 5th (WA) Aux Group in Prome (January 1946), Dakotas resupplying by air, shots taken on leave in Kashmir, Taj Mahal, Srinagar, and portrait photographs of Shute in uniform. [The original photograph album is with the Photograph Archive].
History note
Cataloguer SJO