Calling Blighty! Second World War messages home

Calling Blighty is a series of around 400 filmed messages to loved ones at home, shot in India, Burma and Malaya by the Army Kinematograph Service for the Directorate for Army Welfare for India between 1942 and 1944. Having been away for years in some cases, with unreliable post and telephone communications, personnel stationed in India and South East Asia Command ( SEAC) felt they had become the ‘forgotten army’. Regiments from Manchester, Norwich, Worcester, Glasgow, Leicester, Brighton, Southampton and Northampton featured in the series. Calling Blighty films were shot either at the fighting front or in Bombay, from where the footage was processed and sent home for screening to invited family members in local cinemas. The press often reported the event, so it’s worth checking local newspaper records as well.

Even today, watching the men line up to deliver their messages is moving and sometimes funny as they speak of how well they are, their hopes for early repatriation, words of advice to children (some never met) or younger siblings. Of course there is the inevitable tragedy, with some men being killed while the films shipped home. One can only imagine the feelings of family members seeing their recently deceased relatives on screen.

Not many Calling Blighty films survive, and of those that do, not all speakers have been identified. However, North West Film Archive in Manchester has discovered a sizeable number of men’s names and these can be searched on the NWFA website, or you can contribute if you recognise anybody. Watch Calling Blighty via the websites of the Imperial War Museum, North West Film Archive, East Anglian Film Archive and MACE (details in the directory).