WINGATE MEMORIAL SERVICE [Allocated Title]

Footage of a memorial service held in memory of Major-General Orde Wingate, the commander of the Chindits, after his death in a plane crash in Manipur in March 1944.

Series of shots, increasingly close, of a wooden cross with an inscribed metal plaque in the centre. Close-up shows the plaque to read: ‘Maj Gen O C Wingate, DSO / Capt. G H Borrow, MC / Mr Stewart Emeny (War Correspondent) / Mr Stanley Wills (War Correspondent) / 1st Lieut. Brian E F Hodges, USAAF / 2nd Lieut. Stephan A Wanderer, USAAF, Tech Sgt Frank Sadoski, USAAF / S Sgt James W Hickey, USAAF / S Sgt Vernon A McInnich, USAAF’ and is decorated with a simple line image of a chinthe and pagoda spire. Brief shot shows Major-General Lentaigne and Lord Louis Mountbatten walking together, along with a third officer. Mountbatten leaning against a small wooden podium as British troops gather and sit down around him. A simple church parade with troops on three sides of a square with priest, altar and organist in front. Pan of the congregation. Priest, altar (with cross seen earlier) and organist. Congregation with Mountbatten and Lentaigne; a woman in nurses uniform stands next to Mountbatten and she is apparently the only woman present.

35mm