Description
Object description
British band boy served with 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry at Aldershot Garrison in GB, 7/1929-12/1929; served as band boy, private and NCO with 2nd Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in India, 1930-1939; NCO served with Army Physical Training Corps in GB and Middle East, 1940-1948
Content description
REEL 1 Background in London, GB, 1912-1929: family. Aspects of enlistment as band boy in British Army in GB, 1929: reasons for joining army; medical examination at Army Recruitment Office in Whitehall; musical examination at Boosey & Hawkes; family reaction to decision to join British Army; terms of enlistment; directed to join Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry. Recollections of training as band boy with 1st Bn Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry at Aldershot Garrison, GB, 7/1929-12/1929: journey from London to Aldershot; accommodation in barrack block; making beds; origins of other band boys; relations amongst band boys; issue of uniform; special trousers for light infantry; use of puttees; story of getting blisters with new boots in 1939; learning to play the treble; NCO in charge; how some boys were unsuited to military life; physical training.
REEL 2 Continues: daily routine including breakfast, learning music and education; instructors; cross-country runs and route taken; lack of other games available to boy soldiers; off duty activities; Church parades on Sunday; religious outlook; lack of contact with other regiments. Recollections of period as band boy with 2nd Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in India, 1930-1931 character of voyage in troopship from GB to India; opinion of quantity of army food; disembarkation at Bombay; train journey to Barrackpore.
REEL 3 Continues: initial impressions of India; arrival at Barrackpore; boys' barrack room; lectures on health and hygiene; lectures on venereal disease; protection against heat; degree to which he saw snakes; daily routine including controlled charges with bayonet, breakfast, canteen contractor and music practice; weapons security; background to leaving band. Recollections of period as private and NCO with 2nd Bn Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in India, 1931-1939: attending weapons course; opinion of Lewis Gun.
REEL 4 Continues: comparison between Barrackpore and Bareilly; battalion suicides at Bareilly; leave in Calcutta; question of lack of civil discontent in India; mountain warfare exercise with Gurkha troops; training in use of grenades and technique for throwing one; battalion transport arrangements; prior recollection of participation in brigade exercise at band boy, 3/1930; section attack techniques; defensive tactics; training to construct barbed wire aprons.
REEL 5 Continues: characteristics of trenches; system of specialist courses; annual camps; battalion postings; impact of suicides in battalion; degree of awareness of political developments in India; sources of news; relations with officers; question of qualities of good officers and NCOs; own conduct as NCO; question of officers giving troops an idea of current affairs; applying for vocational training in GB, 1939; return to GB, 1939; opinion of six months leave in 1936 being too long; contact with home; march to Razmak; use of night pickets; section that refused duty; training in patrolling and night navigation; memories of Major R A F Campbell; procedure for promotion.
REEL 6 Continues: application for promotion and attending cadre course; promotion to temporary acting lance corporal and initial difficulties with subordinates; route marches; care of feet; treatment of section which refused picquet duty; march to Razmak; character of Razmak Camp including protective wall; single incident during tour of duty at Razmak; frequency of brigade expeditions from Razmak; use of dry river beds on march; wet conditions during one expedition; rate of march and incidence of forced march on exercise; picket tactics when gaining heights; fighting order.
REEL 7 Continues: description of fire orders; artillery support provided at Razmak; tribesmens' weapons; overnight camps during brigade expeditions; transmission of orders; how lower ranks were briefed for specific situations; lack of action at Razmak; familiarity with terrain around Razmak; degree of contact with Gurkha troops; lack of contact with Indian troops; question of water; off duty activities at Razmak; move to Dinapore; duties of Garrison Provost; lack of training to aid civil power; duties of Garrison and Regimental Provost corporals.
REEL 8 Continues: punishment of defaulters including pack drill; rate of offenses in garrison over five months; charging two men for consorting with prostitutes using gharry; red light areas out of bounds; attitude towards six month home leave; return to Dinapore; degree of awareness of situation in Europe; posting to penal colony on Andaman Islands; attitude towards posting; military training facilities on Andaman Islands; move to Muzaffarabad; situation in Muzaffarabad; measures against heat on plains in summer; move to Lahore by troop train including ceremony at Lucknow Residency, accommodation and feeding arrangements; in cantonment at Lahore. Aspects of period on Resettlement Course in GB, 3/1939-8/1939: return to GB for sheet metal worker training.
REEL 9 Continues: choice of trade; encouragement to re-enlist; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; terms of reserve service; obtaining work in Ipswich and loss of employment due to closed shop trade union. Aspects of period as NCO with Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry Regimental Depot at Bodmin in GB, 9/1939-1/1940: recall for military service, 9/1939; mobilisation of troops; designated to instruct in physical training; attending physical training courses at Tidworth Camp and Aldershot Garrison; nature of physical training; lectures at Aldershot Garrison; mood of reservists at depot; standards of fitness; annual tests; lack of injuries; instruction in physical training.
REEL 10 Continues: prior recollection of preference for Dinapore to Lahore during service in India; prior recollections of tactics learnt of cadre course in India including methods of instruction, appreciation of ground, tactics for advancing and use of sand table; reasons for interest in physical training. Recollections of period as NCO with Army Physical Training Corps in GB, 1940-1942: background to transfer to corps; posting to Aldershot Garrison; attitude towards service with Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry and Army Physical Training Corps; attitude of regiments towards Army Physical Training Corps; initial posting to Royal Warwickshire Regiment Regimental Depot, Warwick; posting to London Rifle Brigade Depot at Woolwich, London; endurance tests; character of troops at Royal Warwickshire Regiment Regimental Depot, Warwick.
REEL 11 Continues: physical fitness of conscripts; number of conscripts with bad attitudes; remedial training for unfit; medical problems encountered; reasons for conscripts being fitter than reservists; decline of fitness after age of thirty; attitude to time spent with Royal Warwickshire Regiment Regimental Depot, Warwick; meeting with Anthony Eden; prospect of German invasion, 1940; posting to Birmingham to train reservists; attitude towards work; training assistant instructors; assessment of physical fitness; use of physical training tables; content of physical training tables. Recollections of period as NCO with Army Physical Training Corps in Middle East, 1942-1946: attempt to volunteer for airborne forces; move to depot in Egypt; injury to knee and convalescence.
REEL 12 Continues: character of voyage aboard HMT Stirling Castle from GB to Egypt via South Africa; unarmed combat training; brief port call in Brazil on route to Egypt and ashore in South Africa; sandstorm on arrival in Egypt; facilities at physical training school; kabbadi played by British Indian Army troops; British Indian Army troops attitude towards physical training; duties as warrant officer of Indian Wing; training assistant instructors; recreational activities; training South African troops in Palestine; informal dental treatment; move to Royal Artillery Depot near Cairo; visit to Jerusalem, Palestine; preparations to receive returning Soviet prisoners of war; thefts from Italian prisoners of war by Egyptians.
REEL 13 Continues: police treatment of Egyptian suspect; duties as warrant officer with Royal Artillery Depot; leave in GB, 1945; return to Egypt after leave; reasons for refusing to vote in General Election, 7/1945; reaction to atomic bombs dropped on Japan, 1945; question of remaining in army; terms of military engagement; process of promotion to sergeant-major; return to GB from Egypt, 1946. Aspects of period as NCO with Army Physical Training Corps in GB, 1946-1952: postings; remedial training at Chester.
REEL 14 Continues: organisation of remedial physical training at Chester; staff; attitude of patients to remedial physical training; posting as instructor to Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; organisation of physical training at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; level of fitness amongst cadets; emphasis on games; standard of discipline; accommodation; NCOs' social life including sergeants' mess; preference of sport; physical training staff; taught fencing; employment as signwriter; visit by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery; attitude towards period at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Recollections of period as NCO with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 1952-1954: posting to Royal Army Service Corps.
REEL 15 Continues: character of Royal Army Service Corps unit at Blackdown Camp; how each specialised in particular sport; battalion cross country; posting to Royal Army Service Corps unit at Aldershot Garrison; work with Boys' Company; comparison between boy soldiers of 1929 and 1953; strength of Boys' Company; boy soldiers' interest in sport; transfer from Army Physical Training Corps to Royal Army Service Corps; routine for boy soldiers and how they were allocated to different trades; lack of disciplinary problems; leaving British Army and return to civilian life, 1954; adjusting to civilian life; advantages of military service; qualities that make good soldiers and officers.
