Description
Object description
British NCO served with 1st Bn Essex Regt, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1936-1938; served with 1st Bn Essex Regt, Cairo Bde, British Troops in Egypt in Egypt, 1936-1939
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as private and NCO with 1st and 2nd Bns Essex Regt in GB and India, 1925-1936: background in enlistment from Territorial Army, 1925; activities during General Strike, 4/5/1926-12/5/1926; service with 2nd Bn, Essex Regt in India, 1929-1933. Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Bn Essex Regt and with Headquarters, Palestine Bde, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1936-1938: preparations for posting to Palestine; troopship voyage from GB to Egypt and train journey to Haifa; temporary posting to Jenin and guard duties necessary; posting to Peninsula Barracks in Haifa; training routine and recreational activities; officers' and sergeants' messes.
REEL 2 Continues: description of Peninsula Barracks; guard duties in Haifa; story of accidental discharge during changing of guard; army punishments; guard duties; attachment to Carmel Camp as brigade quarter-master sergeant; pay; description of Carmel Camp and personnel stationed there; duties as brigade quarter-master sergeant; payment of troops; picket duties escorting brigadier; attack of sandfly fever; evacuation by hospital ship HMHS Maine and hospitalisation in Alexandria, Egypt; return to battalion.
REEL 3 Continues: posting to brigade headquarters at Nablus as brigade quarter-master sergeant; local Arab unrest and shooting incidents; brigade headquarter's move to Carmel Camp and Mount Carmel; duties escorting Brigadier John Evetts; disciplinary problems in his signal section; duties at headquarters at Mount Carmel including issue of patrol rations and control of rum ration; operational exercises; move of brigade headquarters to Jewish Immigration Centre, Haifa; use of Jewish and Arab interpreters.
REEL 4 Continues: absconding and later death of Arab interpreter; necessity of interpreters; reasons for move to Haifa; meeting with Orde Wingate; opinion of officers; role of battalion. Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Bn Essex Regt, Cairo Bde, British Troops in Egypt in Egypt, 1938-1939: reaction to posting to Egypt, 1/1938; journey from Haifa, Palestine to Cairo, Egypt; description of Citadel Barracks in Cairo; duties as platoon sergeant; daily routine and training; brigade training in desert based on Rabiki.
REEL 5 Continues: night exercise during brigade training; camp preparations; overnight visit to Cairo; sanitation; visits to Cairo; story of two deserters; limited contact with Egyptians; degree of recreational activities in Cairo; married life in Citadel; posting to Abbassia Barracks as temporary barrack store accountant; description of duties and stores; arrest of predecessor for involvement in theft from stores.
REEL 6 Continues: method of thefts from stores and increased vigilance; relations with Egyptian workers; degree of understanding of Arabic; living in married quarters in Abbassia Barracks; prison duties and conditions observed in Citadel detention barracks whilst supervising mattress repairs; coir picking for mattresses; postings to Cyprus, Egypt and GB from 1/1939; in tented accommodation near Port Said, 9/1939; social conditions and transport in Cairo; opinion of Egyptians and Palestinian Arabs.