Description
Object description
British officer served as officer with 1st Bn Royal Warwickshire Regt in India, 1938; served as staff officer with Jhansi Bde, Indian Army in India, 1938-1939
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as officer with 1st Bn Royal Warwickshire Regt in India, 1/1938-7/1938: background to joining British Army, 1920; system of postings to India; reaction to posting to India; prior knowledge of military service in India; character of voyage aboard HMT Nevasa from GB to India, 1938; precautions against disease; story of army family who took extreme precautions regarding health; nature of sandfly fever; receiving anti-rabies injections after coming into contact with dog; encounters with snakes, centipede and mongoose; advice received on kit.
REEL 2 Continues: advantages of purchasing kit in India; work of regimental contractor; travelling by train in India; description of Indian railway stations; description of Fyzabad Cantonment; social activities; shooting; playing golf; leave; life on hill stations; question of Indian Army not being prepared to fight European army due to outmoded equipment and transport; relations between British and Indian Army personnel.
REEL 3 Continues: description of accommodation; duties of servants; story of mali's illness; Indian vegetables; story of khidmatgar's mis-spelling of menu; trustworthiness of servants; servant pay; method of cooling bungalows; heat at Jhansi; effect of monsoon rains; mess formality and ceremony; regimental snuff box; inter-rank relations; high levels of morale; problems of conveying army families to hill stations; comparison between Fyzabad and Jhansi stations.
REEL 4 Continues: posting as staff officer. Recollections of period as staff officer with Jhansi Bde, Indian Army in India, 1938-1939: opportunity to learn about Indian Army; differences between British and Indian Army personnel; life for officers' wives; sightseeing and interest in Indian history; an ex-British soldier who became snake catcher; behaviour of Indian civilians towards British troops; degree of contact with Indian civilians; saving Indian from angry mob; attitude to service in India; contact with European civilians; reasons for absence of Indian civilians from European clubs.
REEL 5 Continues: sympathy for Anglo-Indians; role of British Army in India; degree of awareness and interest in Indian politics; benefits of British rule; causes of poverty in India; question of permanent presence of British in India; description of Dak bungalows; degree of access Indians had to European clubs.