GEORGE FORMBY'S ENSA PARTY, CEYLON 1945 [Allocated Title]

Log in to create clips, download free screeners and save clips/films in Collections. Click here to find out more.


  • Title: GEORGE FORMBY'S ENSA PARTY, CEYLON 1945 [Allocated Title]
  • Film Number: ABY 89
  • Other titles: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Summary: Members of the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) including George Formby, the British music hall artist, arrive to entertain servicemen at RAF Ratmalana in Columbo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
  • Description: ENSA members step down from an RAF Douglas Dakota Mk III FL643. They wear plain service dress with ENSA shoulder flashes. The first off the plane is Formby's unnamed pianist. George Formby and his wife Beryl disemplane carrying ukuleles. Formby, grinning broadly, takes a small cardboard carton from his haversack and shows it to the camera. (Text on the carton illegible). A number of instrument cases lying on the ground; George and Beryl pick one out. George and other members of the ENSA party with a group of men in front of a Dakota. He plays a short piece on his ukulele. The men around him laugh and Beryl and another ENSA man dip their shoulders in time to the music. The diminutive British pantomime and comedy actor 'Wee' Georgie Wood, wearing a pith helmet much too large for him, is helped down from the aircraft. His 'stage mother' Dolly Harmer follows behind. Georgie Wood is greeted. Close-up of Georgie Wood.
  • Alternative Title: ROYAL AIR FORCE OPERATIONS IN SOUTH EAST ASIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR [Allocated Series Title]
  • Colour: B&W
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: ABY 89
  • Sound: Silent
  • Access Conditions: IWM Attribution: © IWM
  • Featured Period: 1939-1945
  • Production Date: 1945-03
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Air Ministry, Directorate of Public Relations (Production sponsor) Royal Air Force Film Production Unit (Production company) Hughes, H R (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Formby, George (person) Entertainments National Service Association (regiment/service)
  • Keywords: Ratmalana, Ceylon (geography) Welfare and recreational activities and services, Burma 1942-1945, Second World War (event) Royal Air Force 1939-1945 (theme) Far East 1939-1945 (theme) India 1939-1945 (theme)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: B&W Sound format: Silent
  • Technical Details: Format: 35mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 172 ft; Running time: 2 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    ABY 89

  • Related IWM Collections Objects:

    ABY 71 (MEMBERS OF ENSA PERFORM FOR RAF AIRMEN ON TABINGAUNG AIRSTRIP, BURMA [Allocated Title]) ABY 85 (PATRICIA BURKE ENTERTAINS AN RAF SPITFIRE SQUADRON AT SADAUNG [Allocated Title]) ABY 84 (PATRICIA BURKE ENTERTAINS AN RAF THUNDERBOLT SQUADRON [Allocated Title])
Register