Stage and film star Patricia Burke gives an impromptu show to British troops while she is the guest of XV Indian Corps on Akyab Island in the Arakan region of Burma.

British actress Patricia Burke visits the men of 266th Battery 36th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Royal Artillery at the request of the Colonel of the Regiment. Patricia Burke arrives by jeep and is greeted by Brigadier Leveson-Gower. After a short chat the audience gathers and waits for her to appear on an open-air, improvised stage. After walking on stage Patricia Burke sings to the men. Troops sit near the front of the stage as she sings more numbers (her last show in London had been 'Lisbon Story' and the songs were from this). Patricia calls one of the men, Gunner G W Parks out of the audience and he makes his way to the front of the stage where she gets him to sit at her feet while she sings to him. She takes a curtsey and the audience applaud; she then asks her pianist to come out and take a bow. Patricia is surrounded by men and they chat, smile and laugh. She twiddles the waxed ends of one man's moustache. She then talks to two shirtless men in the cookhouse while sampling some of the food. She also kicks off a Regimental football match and sprints off the field of play.

Notes

Summary: dopesheet notes address of Gunner Parks as: 10 Montfort Avenue, Corringham, Essex.

Burke's pianist is named on the dopesheet as Jimmy Bailey and adds 'All have agreed that the show was the best thing that happened to the Battery since coming to the Arakan, and the star made one and all feel that it was a pleasure to come and entertain the troops'.

See related items below for film and photographs of other performances by Patricia Burke, and other ENSA members, in this theatre.