MILITARY SCENES IN INDIA

This film is held by the Imperial War Museum (ID: MGH 5174).

Synopsis

Reel 1: (Tin marking: Assam) Gurkha and Sikh troops with British officers at camp. Floods and storm damage to buildings.

Reel 2: (Tin marking: Ronnie)

Reel 3: (Tin marking: Aero - Supplies and Recce)

Reel 4: (Tin marking: Assam, Naga Chief, etc)

Reel 5: (Tin marking: Betty in Darjeeling. Sweeping streets. Bazaar day, Darjeeling. Assam. My Basha. US Flying supplies. People from Burma, 1942. The wrecks dangling by tree.)

Reel 6: (Tin marking: Calcutta Election Parades and Darjeeling Scenes)

Reel 7: (Tin marking: Para and Kashmir) Indians playing hockey. Tracking shot through Northern India, passing site in Khyber Pass of British regimental badges carved in stone by roadside.

Reel 8: (Unmarked): Band of 11th Sikh Regiment, under bandmaster Tara Singh, playing outside officers' mess at Nowshera on a Sunday morning, to their audience of officers in civilian dress seated in deck chairs. (Tradition of band playing before curry lunch for officers and their guests.)

Reel 9: (Tin marking: Bands and Wedding) Pipes and Drums of another Indian regiment (green turbans), and of the 11th Sikh Regiment (red turbans) (under Drum Major Bachan Singh and Pipe Major Chuhar Singh), playing before the wedding reception outside the officers' mess in Nowshera for Major Jack McFarlane and his bride Agnes (ne Dallas) on 9 March 1946. British and Indian officers and their wives enjoy drinks together. The wedding cake is cut with a sword, then with a knife by the new Mrs McFarlane. Guests continue to mix after the ceremonial slicing of the cake.

Reel 10: Pan around exterior of large residence and garden, identified by sign on gate as quarters of Major J McFarlane, Sikh Regiment DAA and QMG (Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General of the Nowshera Frontier Brigade Group).

Reel 11: Station and railway journey scenes in Northern India, showing Mrs McFarlane boarding train at Nowshera, and passing Attock Bridge over River Indus, en route to Bombay (Taj Mahal Hotel front) for final departure from India (and prior to her husband's transfer from the Indian Army to the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC), British Army) in 1947.

Reel 12: Departure from India, pan across Bombay port and Gateway to India arch. Couple plays quoits on deck on voyage home. Biplane drops a portable iron lung by parachute into the sea, for polio patient on board.

Reel 13: Indian Army Sikh soldiers in green caps marching behind military band. Arrival of commanding officer (Auchinleck?) and inspection. Presentation and trooping of new colour. Marchpast.

Reel 14: McFarlane residence at Nowshera, No 7. Pan round garden.

Reel 15: On voyage home to Britain through Suez Canal just before Indian Independence (1947), views of de Lesseps statue and Egyptian merchants on waterfront at Port Said (Egypt)

Reel 16: At Capetown (South Africa) in 1956, King's African Rifles parade for military tattoo.

Amateur film shot by Major Jack McFarlane MBE of the Sikh Regiment, Indian Army, records wartime scenes with Force 136 in Burma, and post-war duties as Staff Captain and Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, Nowshera Frontier Brigade Group. (All colour, except first reel.)

 

Titles

  • MILITARY SCENES IN INDIA (Allocated)
  • AMATEUR FILM BY MAJOR JACK McFARLANE (Alternative)
 

Technical Data

Year:
1956
Running Time:
113 minutes
Film Gauge (Format):
16mm
Colour:
B&W, Colour
Sound:
Silent
Footage:
3600 ft ca
 

Production Credits

Production Countries:
GB
cameraman
McFarlane, Jack (Major)