Description
Object description
British NCO served with 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regt in China, Malta, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq, 1927-1932
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Folkestone, GB, 1904-1923: family; education; employment. Aspects of period as private and NCO with Northamptonshire Regt in GB, 1923-1927: Territorial Army experience prior to joining regiment, 1923; rifle training; work as regimental butcher; family connections with army; certificates gained during military service. Aspects of period as NCO with 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regt in China, 1927-1928: posting to join Shanghai Defence Force; troopship voyage from GB to China; training and experience of street fighting methods; distributions and deployment of units in Shanghai; sporting activities; presence of Russian émigrés in Shanghai.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regt, Palestine Command in Palestine, 1929-1931: circumstances of posting of battalion from Malta to Palestine, 1929; move of company to supply depot at Sarafand; patrolling from Sarafand; description of Sarafand Camp; prior recollection of work of officers' wives and British Women's Association in Shanghai; in tented accommodation at Sarafand Camp; in billets near Jaffa and Tel Aviv; guard duties; conditions on posting to Nablus and Hebron; recreational trips in Palestine.
REEL 3 Continues: attending Christmas Eve service in Bethlehem; opinion of commercialisation of religious sites; origins of Arab unrest at Jewish immigration; reunification of battalion at camp in Jerusalem and conditions there; method of obtaining extra rations at Nablus; quality of sergeants' messing arrangements and special occasions; social contacts with Jews and Arabs; football matches played against civilians and military; commanding officer's reaction to financial payouts to Sports Fund; description of wandering Arab prostitute.
REEL 4 Continues: activities of Jewish women in camp; story illustrating Arab sensibilities towards women; peacetime duties in Jerusalem; medical services; position of soldiers' families; NCO pay; British troops' role in Palestine; relations with officers and dispute with company commander. Recollections of period as NCO with 1st Bn Northamptonshire Regt in Egypt and Iraq, 1931-1932: posting to Moascar Barracks, Egypt, 1931; sick leave and small arms course in GB; story of life saving exploit; description of airlift of battalion in Vickers Victorias to Iraq, 1932.
REEL 5 Continues: equipment carried on active service in Iraq; award of life saving medallion; move to Mosul, Iraq; duties and accommodation at Mosul, Iraq; acquiring fish for mess in Mosul; end of trouble amongst Iraq Levies on arrival of British troops; story of senior NCOs night out in Baghdad, Iraq; return to Moascar in Egypt; intervals and leave spent in GB during Egyptian service; training programme; description of Moascar Camp in Egypt; recreational and sporting activities; relations with Egyptians.
REEL 6 Continues: friendship with Arab businessman in Port Said, Egypt; fascination with Egyptian street magicians; role of British military presence in Middle East; lack of political talk and consciousness in sergeants' mess; contacts with GB and sources of news and information.