Description
Object description
British officer served with Royal Engineers in GB, France and Egypt 1914-1917; served as special service officer with Intelligence Corps in Mesopotamia, Ottoman Empire, 1918-1919; served with Department of Military Works, Egyptian Army in Egypt and Sudan, 1920-1923; served as Deputy Chief Engineer and Chief Engineer, British Troops in Egypt in Egypt, 1937-1940
Content description
REEL 1 Background in United States of America and GB, 1893-1913: family; reasons for choice of army as career. Aspects of operations as officer with Royal Engineers in GB, Egypt and Mesopotamia, Ottoman Empire, 1914-1919: opinion of pre-war training received in Royal Engineers; anxiety to get into war at Chatham, 1914-1915; move to France with 59th Field Coy; posting to Egypt. Aspects of period as special service officer with Intelligence Corps in Mesopotamia, Ottoman Empire, 1918-1919: posting to Mesopotamia; activities as special service officer gathering intelligence; learning languages; rations; relations with Arabs; equipment; opinions Indian Army; lifestyle as special service officer; sources of intelligence and unreliability.
REEL 2 Continues: unreliable informant; return to Chatham, 1919. Recollections of period as officer with Department of Military Works, Egyptian Army in Sudan, 1920-1922: reasons for joining Department of Military Works, Egyptian Army in Sudan, 1920; preparations for posting to Khartoum, Sudan; posting to Singa; station personnel at Singa; duties; accommodation; touring; visiting anti-slavery post at Roseires; precautions against malaria; duties of district officer; work building hospital in Malakal; tropical allowances.
REEL 3 Continues: station personnel and social life at Malakal; river traffic on River Nile; attitude towards missionary presence; schools in Sudan; building hospital at Malakal with reluctant help of local tribe; tribal lifestyle; service, lifestyle and tours of neighbouring areas whilst based at Malakal; lifestyle during summer in Khartoum.
REEL 4 Continues: rare formal occasions in Sudan; organisation of Egyptian Army and role of British and Egyptian officers; relations between Egyptian and Sudanese troops; character of his Egyptian Army engineers; story of efforts to deworm Egyptian Army troops; pay. Recollections of period as officer with Department of Military Works, Egyptian Army in Egypt, 1922-1923: posting to Cairo after marriage, 1922; duties in Egypt; relations with Egyptian officers; lifestyle for British officers in Cairo.
REEL 5 Continues: social life and activities; care taken when driving and shooting to avoid Egyptians attempts to extort money; shooting activities; lack of social contacts with Egyptians and European civilians in Cairo; facilities at Gezira Sporting Club; dispersed nature of European settlement in Cairo; attractions of Egyptian Army service; low profile nature of civil unrest; amusing story relating to General Edmund Allenby; degree of danger faced by British officer in Sudan.
REEL 6 Continues: return to GB, 1923. Recollections of period as Deputy Chief Engineer and Chief Engineer, British Troops in Egypt, in Egypt, 1937-1940: background to posting to Cairo, 1937; desert trips; role of Royal Engineers; mechanisation of British forces in Egypt; responsibilities for road building and laying water pipelines in desert; use of contractors; limited defensive preparations in Western Desert; recruitment activities on outbreak of war; pattern of career during Second World War; advent of mine warfare; purpose of British presence in Middle East.
REEL 7 Continues: opinions of British position in Middle East; lack of knowledge of political affairs; barrack lifestyle.