Description
Object description
British NCO served with 12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's) in Egypt and Palestine, 1926-1934
Content description
REEL 1 Background in GB, 1904-1924: family; education; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training as trooper with 12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's) in GB, 1924-1926: enlistment in regiment; pattern of training; duties during General Strike in London, 1926. Recollections of period as NCO with 12th Royal Lancers (Prince of Wales's) in Egypt and Palestine, 1926-1934: reaction to posting to Egypt, 12/1926; issue of tropical kit; care of kit and use of Egyptian laundry facilities; arrival in Egypt; description of camp improvements at Helmieh Camp; recreational facilities an educational opportunities available.
REEL 2 Continues: family's reaction to his overseas service; contact with home; disembarkation at Port Said and arrival at Helmieh Camp; mess and Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) facilities in Egypt; role of Egyptians in camp; reasons for regiment staying at Helmieh Camp and not moving to Abbassia Camp; health problems in Egypt; supervised army brothels; story of attitude towards unsanitary trooper; problems of theft by Egyptians in camp; necessity of taking advantages of educational opportunities for promotion; learning Arabic.
REEL 3 Continues: rewards for leaning languages; treatment of married couples in regiment including organisation of entertainment, welfare, rations and married quarters; leave in Alexandria; Christmas celebrations; regimental officers and administration; opinion of quality of officers; attitude towards Egyptian service; duties as corporal and equitation instructor; method of obtaining replacement troopers; cavalry weapons and use of lance; abolition of lance and increase in reliance on machine guns, 1928.
REEL 4 Continues: unit weapons; reaction to gradual mechanisation of regiment; description of Rolls-Royce Armoured Car; use of supply and radio lorries; importance of physical training and sporting activities after mechanisation; training as physical training instructor, 1929; daily routine; organisation of military training at individual, troop, squadron and regimental levels; night training; long range reconnaissance training in desert; radio communications; navigational exercise; role of motorcyclists.
REEL 5 Continues: opinion of Egyptian Army; anti-riot and internal security role; two month posting to Palestine to stop Arab attacks on Jews, 1928; character of operations in Palestine, 1928; posting to Cyprus during disturbances, 1929; return to GB, 1934; regimental organisation on return to GB; story of patrolling border with Libya during Italian invasion of Ethiopia, 1936; pattern of operations in France and Belgium, 1940; opinion of Lanchester Armoured Car; attitude to possibility of war, 1936; opinion of British role in Middle East; degree of awareness of events during service in Egypt.