Children's Christmas party in garden with parents. Celebrations to mark the accession of Shaikh Hamad bin Isa, the Shaikh of ...
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This film belongs to the following groups.
Dalyell Collection
Dalyell Collection (Reel 10): Christmas party, Bahrain 1933-34
This film is held by the British Empire & Commonwealth Museum (ID: 1998/005/001).
Synopsis
Children's Christmas party in garden with parents. Celebrations to mark the accession of Shaikh Hamad bin Isa, the Shaikh of Bahrain, at Manama, Bahrain, January or February 1933. British Secretary of State for Air's arrival by plane at airfield in Bahrain (dated in accession files to 26 January 1934). Emancipated slaves dance outside the British Agency during Id al Fitr festivities, Manama, Bahrain. Visit by British Navy warships (HMS Colombo and others), and sail racing by cutters.
Production / Donor Details: These cine films were shot by Gordon Loch & Eleanor Loch-Dalyell, parents of British politician Tam Dalyell, during their service in the Empire. Lt.-Col. Loch (who took the name and arms of Dalyell of the Binns in 1938) served as an Intelligence and Political Officer in the Middle East and India from 1908 onwards. During the period of these films he was Political Agent in Gilgit (Kashmir) from 1924-27; in Mysore, Kathiawar and Rewa States from 1928-31; and in the Persian Gulf from 1932-37. He retired in 1938.
Context
Having graduated from Sandhurst, Lt-Col. Percy Gordon Loch entered imperial military service in 1905, joining the Indian army in the 2nd Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment at Multan. He was from a family with an established colonial pedigree – his father, William Loch, had been British Resident in Nepal, and numerous family members had served in India or elsewhere in the Empire. Among them was Henry Brougham Loch, a soldier and colonial administrator who had been governor of both the Cape and of Victoria (Loch 1934: passim). Gordon Loch continued this family tradition. Having been stationed first in the Punjab at Multan, in 1908 he joined the staff of Sir Percy Cox, British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf. In 1910 he obtained a position on the Irrigation Survey of Mesopotamia, before returning to India, where he held various posts between 1911-14. He was re-assigned to the Persian Gulf in 1913; in 1916 he was appointed Political Agent in Bahrain, and in 1918 he was moved to Kuwait. Between 1919 and the early 1930s, Loch held numerous posts, mostly in India – he was an under-secretary in the Indian Government for several years, before being assigned to Gilgit as the Political Agent, a post he then held in Mysore, Kathiawar and Rewa, before finally being appointed once more to the post of Political Agent in Bahrain, a position he held between 1932-37 (DNB, Galbraith 2000, 15-17).
Loch had a significant family connection to the island Shaikhdom, as his great-great uncle, Francis Erskine Loch, had commanded HMS Eden on an expedition against the pirate kingdoms of the Gulf in 1818; his diary of the voyage survived and formed the basis for the book The Pirate Coast, written by Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, himself the personal financial advisor – a British appointed position – to the Shaikh of Bahrain 1926-57 (Belgrave, 1966). The expedition commanded by this elder Loch was intended to ‘once and for all put an end to piracy’ in the Persian Gulf (ibid., 37). A ‘Treaty of Friendship’ between Bahrain and Britain had been agreed in 1816, but this had not put an end to pirate activity against British interests, and the expedition was both punitive and coercive in nature. It resulted in the 1820 ‘Treaty of Peace’ signed by the Shaikh of Bahrain, stipulating that pirate ships would no longer be admitted to Bahrain’s ports. Of itself this did not guarantee any truly significant British influence (beyond a measure of control over shipping in the Gulf), and it was a treaty concluded in 1861 that transformed Bahrain into a British Protectorate, positioning Britain in control of both the defence of island and of the Shaikh’s relations with all major foreign powers.
Gordon Loch married Eleanor Wilkie-Dalyell of The Binns in 1928. The title, a baronetcy dating from 1635, can be passed along the female line, and after the death of her father in 1935 the estate passed to Eleanor; Loch took on the name in 1938, after his retirement. The 37 reels that make up the Dalyell Collection were shot by Eleanor Loch-Dalyell and Gordon Loch during the 1920s and 1930s. The films, frequently edited to include intertitles, cover a diverse range of subjects, from children’s parties to crocodile hunting; political events are shown in some films, but the majority of the footage is personal. Almost all the films show scenes in India or Bahrain (further films that do not show imperial subjects are held in the Scottish Film and Television Archive). The film-making and use of the camera is generally of a rather high standard: shots are well-composed, camera movement is generally careful, and local people – for instance, the dancers and musicians in the film shown here – are shot with an interested, almost ethnographic eye.
Analysis
The film shown here is composed of several different sequences, with intertitles identifying the different events shown. All of the film takes place in Bahrain, beginning with a rather touching sequence of children playing with balloons at a Christmas party in the yard of the Political Agent’s residence (Lt-Col. Loch is identifiable in a jacket and plus-fours). As with many amateur film records of Empire, political events are mixed indiscriminately with personal or touristic footage, and the following sequence shows the celebrations that surrounded the accession of Shaikh Hamad bin Isa al Khalifah in 1933.
In truth, Shaikh Hamad had been in de facto local control of Bahrain for over a decade, and the accession was more a ceremonial occasion rather than a fresh transfer of powers. Against the original wishes of his aged father, Shaikh Isa, Shaikh Hamad had been installed with British backing to Bahrain’s most prominent administrative positions in 1921. It seems that his younger brother, Shaikh Abdullah, had been preferred, and there had been manoeuvring to that effect as early as 1919, when Abdullah had been sent on a deputation to Britain. Abdullah held numerous posts in the Bahraini administration, and in 1919 had also campaigned against British interference in the Shaikhdom’s affairs. In 1921 the ‘strong current of anti-English feeling’ that was detectable in Bahrain was blamed upon him and his associates. Pressure from the Political Agent succeeded in convincing the aged Shaikh Isa to remove Abdullah from all important posts, and immediately replacing him with the more tractable Shaikh Hamad. From this point onward Hamad was the primary point of contact for the British (his father already being ‘in his dotage’: (Al-Tajir, 1987, 20-35).
The death of Shaikh Isa in December 1932 thus rendered symbolically valid that which had been achieved practically in 1921. The official accession took place early in 1933, and the celebrations were in part organised by the Shaikh’s personal advisor, Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, who can be seen walking with the Shaikh and greeting other dignitaries as they review the Bahrain Police in this footage. In Belgrave’s memoir of his time in Bahrain, Personal Column, he recollects the occasion, which ‘provided an opportunity for celebrations and pageantry. We held what was known as a “Durbar”… in the hall of an old school, and Marjorie [Belgrave’s wife] and I spent much time planning the décor for the ceremony’ (Belgrave, 1960, 77). The event is also noted in the Bahrain Government Reports for the year, reports whose two annual sections – the Budget and the ‘Annual Report’ – were authored by Belgrave in his official capacity as ‘Financial Adviser to the Government, Bahrain’. Attendees and events were noted: ‘His Britannic Majesty’s Political Agent [Loch], representatives of the Navy and Air Force, the European and American community and about 500 of the leading Arabs, Qadis, merchants and notables attended the Durbar… For three days there were unprecedented and universal rejoicings; thousands of poor people were fed outside the Palace, tribal dances were performed, and the towns were decorated and illuminated’ (Bahrain Government Reports 1924-1956, ‘Annual Report for the Year 1351 [1932-33], 396-7). It is thus probable that this particular footage was shot by Eleanor Loch-Dalyell, as it seems that Loch himself would have been directly involved in some of the events pictured.
The Al Khalifah dynasty had ruled Bahrain since 1783, and the Shaikhdom was passed down the male line; Shaikh Isa, Hamad’s father, had acceded to the throne in 1869. Belgrave’s presence alongside the Shaikh is perhaps of greatest significance here, for in these few short minutes a strong sense is gained as to the depth of British penetration into the ruling hierarchy of the country. Belgrave accompanies Hamad as they inspect the police corps, and the impression is one of a chaperone with his charge. Shaikh Hamad may not have owed his title to the British, but he owed them his power, and to them was his power subordinated in the last instance; although his accession may have been the occasion for pomp and majesty, the two people who probably held the most practical power in the Bahrain of 1933 were in fact the British officials, Belgrave and Loch, who are seen at his side in this film.
Francis Gooding (March 2010)
Works Cited
Al-Tajir, Mahdi Abdulla Bahrain 1920-1945: Britain, the Shaikh and the Administration (Beckenham: Croom Helm, 1987)
Belgrave, Charles Dalrymple The Pirate Coast (London: G. Bell and Sons Ltd, 1966)
Belgrave, Charles Dalrymple Personal Column (London: Hutchinson, 1960)
Galbraith, Russell Inside Outside: The Man They Can’t Gag (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 2000)
Bahrain Government Annual Reports 1924-1956 5 vols. (Gerrards Cross: Archive Editions, 1986)
Loch, Gordon The Family of Loch (Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable Ltd, 1934)
Titles
- Dalyell Collection (Reel 10): Christmas party, Bahrain 1933-34 (Archive)
- Series Title:
- Dalyell Collection
Technical Data
- Year:
- 1934
- Running Time:
- 8 minutes
- Film Gauge (Format):
- 16mm VHS
- Sound:
- Mute
- Footage:
- approx 200 ft
Production Credits
- Production Details
- See synopsis
Groups
This film belongs to the following groups.
Dalyell Collection
