Description
Object description
British officer served with 7th Bn Machine Gun Corps in India, 1920-1921; served with 1st Bn East Surrey Regt in India, 1926-1929; served as staff officer with Manzai Bde, Indian Army on North West Frontier in India, 1929-1933; served as adjutant with 1st Bn East Surrey Regt in India, 1933-1938
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period with 7th Bn Machine Gun Corps in India, 1920-1921: background to enlistment in army, 1914; family connections with India; secondment to Machine Gun Corps; prior knowledge of India; character of voyage aboard SS Derbyshire from GB to India, 1920 including duties; story of patrolling SS Derbyshire blindfolded; preparing station for habitation at Dum Dum; meeting with brother of acquaintance; description of barracks at Dum Dum; recruitment of bearer. Aspects of period as officer with 1st Bn East Surrey Regt in India, 1926-1929: employment of servants in married quarters and their duties; employment of Swedish nurse with medical qualifications; hierarchy of hospitals in India; contact with his bearer post service in India.
REEL 2 Continues: personal duties provided by bearer and details of his working day; occasional pilfering by bearers; work of contractors; refusing gift from Indian havildar; degree of contact with Indian civilians; occasion when his wife had brick thrown at her in bizarre. Recollections of period as staff officer with Manzai Bde, Indian Army on North West Frontier of India, 1929-1933: work as staff officer during re-occupation of Wana Plain; re-construction of Wana Camp; picqueting system and sniping.
REEL 3 Continues: water supply; ration convoys from plain to camp; going out on column; role of South Waziristan Scouts; peacefulness of Wana Plain; opinion of Pathans; story of adulterous wife of Pathan caught with man; precautions taken against attacks by Pathans; riot control procedure; opinion of Indian politicians; relationships with Indian troops; lack of sense of impending end to British rule; opinion of work of Indian Civil Service; big game hunting; story of looking after orphaned tiger cub after shooting of it's mother.
REEL 4 Continues: taming tiger cub; taking tiger cub to Lahore Zoo by train; work of taxidermist firm in Madras; activities on leave.