Description
Object description
British officer served with Air Ship Section, Royal Naval Air Service in GB and Greece, 1917-1919
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Kent, GB: father's employment with Navy; story of enlisting as probationary officer in Royal Naval Air Service, 1917; attitude to joining army; memory of Roll of Honour being read out at school; awareness of war situation; effects of war on daily civilian life; blackouts; memory of German aircraft; rationing; education; opinion of food; memory of outbreak of war, 8/1914; question of length of war; attitude to conscientious objectors; memory of prefect and sportsman D J Knight; effects of war on education; attitude to school Corps activities and training. Aspects of training with Air Ship Section Royal Naval Air Service in GB, 1917: posted to Roehampton for training; issued with naval uniform; description of free ballooning and training for air ship pilots; amusing story of final test flight in balloon; commissioned as probationary Flight Lieutenant; posted to Cranwell for training on dirigibles; attitude of aircraft pilots to air ships; posted to Folkestone and nature of duties patrolling channel; description of air ship and crew; problem of strong winds and danger of fire. Aspects of operations with Air Ship Section Royal Naval Air Service in Greece, 1918-1919: posted to Salonika, Greece, 1918; location in Gulf of Cassandra.
REEL 2: daily life in Salonika; description of journey to Salonika via France and Italy; accommodation in tented rested camp; weather conditions; story of learning to ride; drafted to quarters in marquee at RAF station outside Salonika; recreational activities in Salonika; story of going Absent Without Leave and punishment; posted to port of Mudros on island of Lemnos; problem of influenza epidemic; posted to station in Gulf of Cassandra opposite Mount Olympus.
REEL 3 Continues: daily life and duties in Mediterranean; station closed down, 3/1919; description of journey back to GB and demobilisation, 1919 Reflections on period of military service. Post-war life and career in medicine. Further recollections of education in Malvern. Aspects of period as doctor and pathologist with Royal Army Medical Corps in India and Burma, 1942-1945. Reflections on nature of conventional and nuclear war.