Description
Object description
British NCO and officer served with Women's Auxiliary Service Burma in India, Burma and Japan, 1942-1946
Content description
REEL 1 Background in India and GB, 1920-1939: family; attending boarding school in GB; father's service with British Indian Army on North West Frontier, India; languages spoken; lifestyle in India; social customs; attitude towards life at boarding school in GB; return to India, 1939. Aspects of period as civilian in India, 1940-1942: obtaining employment with British Army.
REEL 2 Continues: nature of work with British Army; employment as Personal Assistant to Resident in Hyderabad; attitude towards social life; move to Quetta; meeting Freya Stark. Recollections of period as officer with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) in India and Burma, 1942-1945: hearing of Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma); enlistment in Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) in India, 1942; journey to Shillong, India; work of Commandant Nin Taylor and Major Lois St John; attachment of Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) to Fourteenth Army, 1943; uniform; living conditions; food supplies and rations; system of rank; relations with Allied troops; morale of Allied troops; work of Lord Louis Mountbatten.
REEL 3 Continues: Lord Louis Mountbatten's speech to troops; accommodation in Imphal, India; evacuation from Imphal, India during Imperial Japanese Army advance, 2/1944-3/1944; work at Milestone 82 during Battle of Kohima, India; cooking dead mule's liver; memories of Chindits; move to Cox's Bazaar, India; receiving visit from Lady Edwina Mountbatten; move to Akyab Island, Burma; Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombing of area; living conditions; further Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombing; attitude of Allied troops towards American troops; role of Naga hill people and other local peoples.
REEL 4 Continues: coping with monsoon; description of canteen vehicles; goods supplied to troops; keeping accounts; fatiguing nature of work; drivers of mobile canteens; social life; Entertainment National Service Association (ENSA) concerts in area including popularity of 'Gert and Daisy' and attitude towards Vera Lynn; attitude of troops towards Entertainment National Service Association (ENSA) performers; relations between troops and Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) female personnel; news of wars progress; deaths of two Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) personnel; visits from Commandant Nin Taylor; attitude of General William Slim, Major-Generals Reginald Scoones and General Montagu Stopford towards Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma).
REEL 5 Continues: attitude towards war in Europe; question of whether war in Burma was 'forgotten'; move to Rangoon, Burma; work with former Allied prisoners of war returning from camps; condition of former prisoners of war; distributing clothing to former prisoners of war; caution in feeding former prisoners of war; attitude of troops towards former prisoners of war; story of how Burmese sold possessions left by British after evacuation back to British post-war; attending ceremony were Imperial Japanese Army handed over swords; attitude towards new Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) personnel recruited towards end of Second World War; decision to continue serving with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) post-war. Recollections of period as officer with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) in Japan, 1946: journey to Japan.
REEL 6 Continues: attitude of occupying British troops towards Japanese; running canteen for troops of 2nd Bn Dorsetshire Regt; impressions of Japanese society and culture; attitude towards Japanese women; accommodation in Japanese home; attitude towards Japanese people; Japanese attitude towards defeat; visit to Hiroshima; sight of devastation in Hiroshima; attitude towards dropping of atomic bombs on Japan, 8/1945; lack of knowledge of radiation; searching through rubble; devastation of Hiroshima; attitude of Japanese towards Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) female personnel; strike by Japanese dockers at Kure.
REEL 7 Continues: canteen at Kure; demobilisation, 8/1946. Reflections on service with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma): return to GB; difficulties adjusting to civilian life; maintaining contact with former Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) personnel; receiving Mention in Dispatches; attitude of authorities and troops towards Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma); attitude towards work with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma); post-war clothes rationing.