Description
Object description
British private served with 1st Bn South Wales Borderers in India, 1938-1942
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as private with 1st Bn South Wales Borderers in India, 1938-1942: background to enlistment in 1st Bn South Wales Borderers, 1938; prior knowledge of service in India; army advice about venereal disease; provision of regimental brothels in Cawnpore; army information about service in India; Indian hostility over relations between British troops and Indian women; story of assault by tonga driver; purpose of British Army presence in India; training march on North West Frontier; issue of kit; character of voyage aboard SS Voltaire from GB to India including 'mustard drills' and orderly duties.
REEL 2 Continues: further details of voyage aboard SS Voltaire from GB to India; opinion of officers; inter-relations between officers, NCOs and other ranks; character of Corporal Condon; initial impressions of India; train journey from Bombay to Peshawar; description of barracks at Landi Kotal; relations between troops and barrack servants; pay; leave in Lucknow; shaving in bed; training in mountain warfare and riot control.
REEL 3 Continues: riot duties in Cawnpore, 1940; instructions to troops engaged in riot control; joint exercises with Royal Air Force and Gurkhas; opinion of Gurkhas; contact with Indian Army regiments; attitude towards Indian troops; contrast between barracks in India and GB; sanitation arrangements; use of wet canteen; story of receiving punishment at for being caught out of bounds in brothel in Lucknow.
REEL 4 Continues: reasons for refusing promotion; behaviour of wartime recruits; adequacy of food; food supplied by charwallah; contracting sandfly fever, malaria and dysentery; army hygiene precautions; precautions taken against sandflies; daily routine; sporting activities; recreational activities; duties as orderly to married quarters including details of infidelity with army wives.
REEL 5 Continues: occurrences of homosexuality amongst troops; his relationship with Parsee women; instances of mixed marriages; reasons for enjoying posting to Cawnpore; attitude to posting to Landi Kotal; his inability to distinguish between different Indian ethnic groups; sight seeing in India; attitude to service in India; degree of contact with European civilians; opinion of purpose of British Army's presence in India and benefits derived by Indians; degree of awareness and interest in Indian politics; story illustrating laxness of Territorial Army draft, 1940; use of army numbers instead of forenames; how Indians were prohibited from receiving leftovers; treatment of Indians.