INTERVIEWS WITH G F CAIRNS AND J C McLELLAN [Allocated Title]

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  • Title: INTERVIEWS WITH G F CAIRNS AND J C McLELLAN [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: RHC 24
  • Other titles: INTERVIEWS WITH IN-PENSIONERS AT THE ROYAL HOSPITAL, CHELSEA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: G Cairns was a member of Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and RAF, and talks about his service in the Second World War, Aden , Cyprus and Gan. J C McLellan was a member of The Corps of Royal Military Police, and talks about his service in Post-First World War Germany.
  • Description: I. Mr Cairns joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (TA) In February 1939 and went with them to France in January 1940, serving in the 51 (Highland) Division near the Maginot Line at Metz. He operated a Bren-gun in a section of six and, when the withdrawal began in May 1940, he helped to cover the move of French troops. His Battalion was sent north by train to St Brimond (?). His section was moving forward to occupy a small Chateau when Germans in a sunken road opened fire with machine guns, and he was hit in the shoulder. Later found by a detachment of Germans, he was left for dead , and then discovered by another survivor from his Battalion, with whom he managed to reach a Royal Engineer Troop about to blow up a bridge. He was evacuated.by ambulance to Rouen and then to St Nazaire, where he was operated upon and sent back as a stretcher case to hospital in Sunderland. Three months later he joined his Battalion, which was reforming and later transferred to 78 Division, with whom he moved to Tunisia in November 1942. He comments on the relative inadequacy of British equipment, notably the 2 pounder anti-tank guns. After being wounded in the right leg by shrapnel, he was operated on at Algiers and then medically down-graded. He served with administrative units in Italy and was demobilised there. After the war, he tried to rejoin the Army but found that he was too old at 26 to be accepted, so he joined the RAF Regiment, with whom he spent “22 happy years”. He served mainly as an Instructor in anti-aircraft gunnery in the Canal Zone, Aden and Malaya; he makes some comments on counter-insurgency operations. His last 5 years in the Army were spent at the School of Artillery and he then became a Yeoman of the Guard for 7 years, after which he was promoted first to be Assistant Curator of the Crown Jewels and then Curator. He tells how, when the Jewels were being cleaned, he held in his hand the unlucky Koh-i-Noor Diamond and that evening suffered his first heart attack. II. Mr McLellan describes how he joined the KOSB in November 1914 as a boy soldier, was trained at Catterick and went to France in the last part of the war, where his Battalion was in action in the Armentieres sector. He speaks of the impact made by the Armistice, and then of the march to Germany and the subsequent occupation. He learned German and joined the Mounted Police, then the Foot Police and then the Special Investigation Branch. He describes the investigation of major and minor crime, and the type of patrols that he undertook. On promotion to Sergeant, Mr McLellan returned to the UK and served at Aldershot, where the police horses were replaced by motor cycles. In 1932 he went out to the Egyptian Command to help in mechanising the military police there: the equipment was a mixture of Triumph, BSA and Douglas motor cycles. He describes the art of anticipating whether there was going to be trouble in a particular area of Cairo at a particular time; the types of crime that occurred; and the high standards of turnout that were required of soldiers at that time.
  • Alternative Title: INTERVIEWS WITH IN-PENSIONERS AT THE ROYAL HOSPITAL, CHELSEA [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: Colour
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: RHC 24
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1985
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details:
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations:
  • Keywords:
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour Sound format: Sound
  • Technical Details: Format: Betamax Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Running time: 88 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    RHC 24

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