Description
Object description
British civilian in India, 1939-1942; private, NCO and officer served with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) in India and Burma, 1942-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in India and GB, 1923-1939: family; education; return to India, 1939; childhood in India. Aspects of period as civilian in India, 1939-1942: importance of Indian railways during Second World War; work as secretary for RAF in Delhi and General Headquarters in Simla; move to Lahore; employment as matron at Acheson College in Simla; question of race and social hierarchy. Recollections of period as private, NCO and officer with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) in India and Burma, 1942-1945: volunteering to join unit, 1942; uniform; training at Shillong; posting to Chittagong.
REEL 2 Continues: membership of team serving Indian and British troops from mobile canteen at Chittagong; drivers; pay; stock taking and accounting; making tea; making cakes to sell in canteens; weather conditions; social life; relations between Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) personnel and troops; Japanese air raid at Chittagong; falling into sea when visiting Royal Navy ship; move to Tumbru Ghat; accommodation; story of how member of team was bitten by dog; married women serving in Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma); story of how troops would sing 'Holy City'; water supply; problems with vermin.
REEL 3 Continues: visit from brother Patrick; relationship with Group Captain George Chater; posting to staging post at Ramree Island; story of how she had appendix removed; move to Monywa; promotion and ranks; flight in aircraft to obtain supplies; obtaining cigarettes from GB; opinion of conditions for 14th Army; censoring driver's letters; problems with venereal disease; opinion of Nin Taylor; women serving with Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma).
REEL 4 Continues: work of Gay Tucker and Joan Mortimer; organisation of her team; informal character of organisation of Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma); backgrounds of personnel; attitude of troops towards Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) personnel; move to Rangoon; Japanese stragglers in Rangoon area; receiving a Mentioned in Dispatches for work in setting up headquarters in Rangoon; marriage in Delhi, India; post-war life in Rawalpindi, India; question of recognition of work of Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) during Second World War.
REEL 5 Continues: working with and impressions of Nin Taylor; members of unit who lost husbands and boyfriends.