Entertaining the Forgotten Army

The publication of the Munster report in December 1944 led to a flurry of British Army welfare activity in India, Ceylon and Burma during the early part of 1945.  One of the areas the report criticised was the lack of entertainment, which it said adversely affected morale.  The Parliamentary report had pointed out that, unlike troops visiting Naples during their leave from the Gothic line, their fellow countrymen in India could not be expected to provide for themselves when it came to relaxation, especially in remote locations.  From an Army Welfare Services point of view, the provision of entertainment was a tangible service that could be delivered, especially if it involved famous star performers.  From the entertainers' perspective, however, this was easier said than done.

While Earl Munster was criss-crossing the Sub-Continent during October 1944, gathering data for his report, the Adjutant-General, Ronald Adams, and Brigadier M.C. Morgan, who would go on to write the official history of the Army Welfare Services, were planning their own response to the morale crisis in India: Joyce Grenfell.¹

The actress and comedian had already toured North Africa, Italy and the Middle East earlier that year.  At a time when air travel (especially for civilians) was scarce, the AG sidestepped the usual ENSA channels and fast-tracked her to Persia, then to India in November 1944.  Her monologue and sing-song routine, accompanied by her pianist, Viola Tunnard, was ideal for the more intimate setting of troop hospital wards, and she would stay on after her act to talk to the patients.  She had got used to performing three or four wards a day whilst touring Italy, but in the oppressive heat of India, it was cut down to two ward visits.² Most accounts of entertainers touring India mention the climate, the lack of infrastructure, and fatigue as featuring heavily in their memories.  In East with ENSA, the ballet dancer, Catherine Marks describes her experience of Panegar:

Touring India, Ceylon, and Burma was obviously not for the faint-hearted!

Vera Lynn and Noël Coward had endured the heat, snakes, and insects to entertain the British troops during brief visits to India earlier in 1944.  Some suspected that the stars had ulterior motives for their visits, though.  An anonymous letter sent to an ENSA Officer after the Noël Coward tour highlighted this concern:

Press coverage and publicity played a major role in some performers' decisions to tour India, which, to some extent, was understandable given the time commitments involved.  Whilst making this decision from the comforts of the West End was easy, the reality on the ground was often a shock.  When stars arrived in remote stations and camps, they had high expectations and did not always get the reception they expected.  With typical dark humour, when Vera Lynn visited a medical station close to the front line in Burma, the troops told her that the Japs played her records over loudspeakers “to lower the morale of British troops.”⁵ Never one to miss a photo opportunity, George Formby and his agent/wife Beryl arrived by plane in January 1945.  As readers of Historic Ephemera will know, the Formbys could be a bloody liability in a war zone (see The Case of George Formby and Operation Baytown).  Forgoing the proper channels, George and Beryl chartered a private plane to visit the troops in Imphal, much to the annoyance of ENSA.⁶

It was the smaller-named performers, like the Sheffield comedian Stainless Stephen, who were the real troupers.  Stainless Stephen spent over six months touring India and Burma; the Hello Happiness ENSA party spent three years touring overseas.  To the surprise of many stars, the amenities were at best rudimentary in the jungle.  Colonel Bell complained to Virginia Vernon that the big names were more trouble than they were worth:

Following the Munster report, many more entertainers would be making their way to Karachi, and the stars were able to avoid the long troopship voyage. 

As much as the soldiers appreciated visits by civilians who had travelled huge distances from the UK, they often preferred the entertainment put on by other troops.  Gang Show No.10, along with an erk called Peter Sellers, arrived in Bombay by troopship and played their first show at RAF Santa Cruz at 2030 hrs on 26 August 1944.⁷ They spent the next nine months touring RAF stations and camps across India, Ceylon, and Burma.  There’s a lovely clip of the young Peter Sellers appearing in a Gang Show on Akyab Island on 26 January 1945 in this IWM film:

Sellers always had stage presence, and you can see him from timecode 3.30 entertaining the troops.  The big advantage of these soldier concert parties was that they were completely self-sustaining.  You can see from the clip that they travelled in a small convoy, the performers set up their own stage (and, importantly, piano), and then got on with the show.  The audience for the performance in the video is surprisingly small, underscoring the challenge of entertaining troops spread across a vast geographic area in remote locations.  At the time, there were only two RAF Gang Shows touring India, so you can imagine how many performances were needed across the Sub-Continent with this size audience.  See my earlier post for more background on Ralph Reader’s RAF Gang Shows.

The topic of welfare for British servicemen and women in the Far East was brought to the nation’s attention through a headline in the Sunday Pictorial on 6 August 1944 by Captain Bellenger, MP. Churchill, concerned about the potential impact on troop morale and future war plans in the Far East, initiated the Munster Report, which was published in December 1944. Actually delivering the welfare required in the quantities and quality expected by the troops on the ground across India, Ceylon, and Burma would be the focus of the rest of 1945 and into 1946.