Description
Object description
British drummer served with 1st Bn Dorsetshire Regt in India, 1935-1938
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as drummer with 1st Bn Dorsetshire Regt in India, 1935-1938: daily routine; emphasis on sport; enjoyment of posting; slowness of mail from GB; application for home leave; opinion of Indians; cheating barrack servants of money owed; relations with Indian servants; importance of char wallahs; prior recollection of family background in Northumberland. Aspects of enlistment and training with Dorsetshire Regt in GB, 1930-1935: reasons for joining army as boy soldier, 1930.
REEL 2 Continues: prior recollection of education in Northumberland; social origins of boy soldiers joining regiment; training with regimental band; transferring to Corps of Drums; promotion to commanding officer's bugler; duties and privileges; punishment for late return from leave; attitude to posting to India; musical instruction with army. Recollections of period as drummer with 1st Bn Dorsetshire Regt in India, 1935-1938: formation of dance band in India; learning bugle calls; different bugle calls used in army.
REEL 3 Continues: sounding general alarm during mutiny of Indian regiment in Nowshera, 1937; causes of mutiny; practising bugle calls; opinion of Indian tailors and shoemakers; hiking expeditions from hill stations; accounts of life in India from returned soldiers; lasting impressions of service in India; degree of information provided by army on posting to India; how members of Band and Corps of Drums considered themselves elite of regiment; behaviour of boy soldiers.
REEL 4 Continues: voyage from GB to India, 1935 including abuse of Italians at Suez and recreational activities; initial impressions of India on arrival at Karachi; sight of mongoose/snake fight on docks at Karachi; train journey to Sialkot; outline of daily routine in barracks; sporting and recreational activities; treatment of Indians by troops; participation in sporting meetings; posting to Landi Kotal, 1936; organised hill climbing expeditions from Landi Kotal.
REEL 5 Continues: lack of activity at Landi Kotal on North West Frontier, 1936; malingering amongst troops and techniques used to avoid duties; attack of pleurisy and convalescence in hills; health hazards in India; old soldier's story about cloud of cholera; use of mosquito nets in barracks; rules concerning wearing of topees; question of cases of heat stroke; recreational activities; educational instruction; dances and playing in dance band; contact with Anglo-Indians.
REEL 6 Continues: marriages between troops and Anglo-Indian women; Milner's broken engagement with fiancée in GB; degree of contact with English women; penalties for troops contracting venereal disease; question of reasons why occurrences of homosexuality were low; attitude towards sex; opinion of calibre of officers; degree of contact with Indian troops; Gurkhas' admiration for British.
REEL 7 Continues: purpose of British Army presence in India; lack of anticipation of Indian Independence; degree of contact with Indian civilians; duties as bugler during training; opinion of training exercises; posting to Landi Kotal on North West Frontier; question of attitude towards foreigners gleaned from foreign service; role of regiment during riots at Lahore; description of barrack buildings and cooling systems; extremes of climate at Landi Kotal; opinion of Indian railway system.
REEL 8 Continues: description of rations and supplementary food purchased from wallahs; daily meals and drinking of tea; posting to hills; attitude to Indian food and its preparation; relations with barrack servants; tipping servants at Christmas; char wallahs accompaniment of route marches.
REEL 9 Continues: degree of knowledge of Indian peoples and castes; imprisonment of wallahs due to soldiers' refusal to pay their debts; attitude to service in India; experience of earthquakes on North West Frontier; relief of prickly heat by monsoon rains; opinion of Indian Independence.