(Reel 1) B&W - Winter 1939 (?). Kennard in suit by his open-top Ford Tourer, beside camel and Arabs. Playing polo at Alexandria Sporting Club. Boxing and tennis. Third Battalion exercise in desert: large tent encampment near rocky mountains. Soldiers wear gasmasks (against sand blown by strong wind?) in exercise; laying cables, resting in wadi, moving off in vehicles and speeding across desert. More sports scenes: sailing in Alexandria past French sloop D'Iberville; tennis, throwing the hammer, British children's Sports Day, pole vault, etc. Ruined city. More views of Alexandria Harbour, with Dutch cruiser Sumatra, Short Sunderland flying boat (AEUA) landing and three funnel Turkish cruiser Hamidye. On board RN minesweeper, with Egyptian Navy training. Polo at Alexandria Sporting Club. More touristic scenes of Egypt, including Pyramids.

(Reel 2) B&W - Kennard and fellow officers Bill Seymore and Joclyn Inglby spend weekend by Red Sea at Kinmonth Camp, accompanied by batman. Kennard sits under awning wearing panama hat. Huge pile of Barclays Export beer empty cans and bottles indicate how thirst was quenched. Fishing in sea; dhow; Coptic Monastery; pyramid. [Very under-exposed film]. Military Sports Day at Alexandria Sporting Club includes military parade, camel, donkey, bike and sack races. [Presumed date 1939]

(Reel 3) COLOUR - film, edited and captioned with cartoon sketches of Battalion officers, of the Ceremony of Trooping the Colour by the Third Battalion Coldstream Guards at the Alexandria Sporting Club Polo Grounds, 9 June 1939.

(Reel 4) Mixed B&W and COLOUR - Batman packs case marked Master of Sinclair (fellow officer Murray Sinclair), prior to Kennard boarding Italian vessel Esperia at Alexandria for Haifa (October 1938); on board scenes, reading Penguin paperback, playing deck quoits and arriving in Haifa, with two RN destroyers visible. COLOUR - Swimming in blue sea. Three funnel Turkish cruiser Hamidye at Alexandria. Botanical and zoological gardens. Army encampment by sea, with Egyptian shepherd boy with flock. Men of Third Battalion in shorts play football by tents. Notice board of 4 Company, 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards, marked On Active Service [DATE?]. Lieutenant Llewellyn Palmer seated in tent. Activity in Alexandria Harbour: Italian liner passes RN County Class cruiser, sailing, swimming, Sunderland overhead, white and yellow painted Egyptian Royal Yacht. B&W - Train passes. Mixed B&W and COLOUR - Garden, polo at Alexandria Sporting Club, swimming pool and damaged Sphinx scenes in Egypt; Nile barges and dhows. Car journey by Kennard through Egypt to Siwa oasis ringed by hills. St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai Peninsula? (Coptic priest present). COLOUR - Past Pyramids and Sphinx. Three officers mount camels. Pan over river Nile at Cairo. Dhows. Orange seller. Copper souk. Camel threshing. Egyptian peasant children. Kennard bathing in sea wears panama with brigade ribbon.

(Reel 5) B&W - Flight from Alexandria to Lydda, Palestine (20 January 1939). Modern streets of Haifa, and panorama from Mount Carmel. Mosque. Water source, probably at Silwan. Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. Arabs fishing. Ruins of Capernaum. Train from Beirut (?) arrives at Haifa. Exterior of Dung Gate in Jerusalem. Jewish men and women pray together at the Wailing Wall. Ash graffiti (erased by rain) identify names of dead on Wall, including Shlomo; Jewish woman begs (traditional place for begging). Two arab merchants stand talking, while one holds his masbaha (similar to rosary). Arab and Jewish merchants sell goods separately (in same frame). British soldier in Jerusalem. Bedouin villager with sack of grain in street; Arab drink seller, wearing distinctive hat. Arches in David Street. Orthodox Jews approaching Wailing Wall cover faces to avoid camera. Outside the walls of Jerusalem, near the Jaffa Gate. Inside the city Jewish shops stand closed (presumably on sabbath). Street scene inside Jaffa Gate. Tower of David. Armenian or Greek Orthodox priest. Arabs in Silwan market. COLOUR -Orange and lemon groves, and poppies. Palestinian women rounded up by Army at Silwan, while village is searched by 3rd Battalion on 11 February 1939. ("Cordoned Silwan before daylight, found seventy wanted men. One woman in a frenzy tearing her hair and rending her garments. Hit over head by cabbage stalk.") Jaffa Gate at Jerusalem. 3rd Battalion officers in mufti and women riding and jumping. 3rd Battalion on patrol in Palestine hilly region; tortoise, poppies, cyclamen (March 1939); soldiers set off in single file, past Bedouin tent and sheep. Soldiers eat. Arab market and other sites in Jerusalem. B&W - Rolls Royce armoured car, armed with Vickers machine gun, on patrol. Guardsmen use gelignite to detonate rebel Arab roadblock on way down to Dead Sea. COLOUR - view of Jericho with Jordan Hotel in main square. B&W - Guardsman with map. Guardsmen remove Arab male villagers for searching; others already detained. Separately guarded women before papers are checked at table; Arab males are searched getting off bus. Cars in desert. [Kennard was sponsored by Fords in Cairo for testing vehicles in desert conditions.] B&W - Soldiers signalling on patrol and crossing fast-flowing River Hebron by signalling wire. Kennard floating in Dead Sea. Signalling unit in country; resting; ambulance. Vickers Valentia flies low overhead and drops supplies (bedding) in hills (27 January 1939). British soldiers oversee Arabs erecting barbed wire compound for their own containment (22 January 1939). Armoured railway cars of Palestine Railways, British Army trucks on flatcars, railway siding scenes.

(Reel 6) B&W - (Snatches of soundtrack commentary post-recorded identify some people and incidents) Kennard's car journey to Aqaba (30 March - 7 April 1939), crossing Suez Canal by ferry and observing local scenes: weaving, potting and Arab dancing girls. COLOUR - Off coast at Aqaba, then ashore. Arab Legionnaires at Frontier Force post. Views of Petra (14 November 1936), including Treasury. Mixed B&W and COLOUR - At sea again off Aqaba: basking sharks, fishing. Guy ? oiling himself against sun. Kennard's fishermen Reduan and Hassan. After receipt of telegram from Jerusalem telling Kennard and companions to return, two cars pause on top of hill leading out of Aqaba. Starting point of trip at United Services Club, Ismailia. Captain Sainthill.

(Reel 7) B&W - Ceremony of Trooping the Colour by the Second Battalion Scots Guards at Cairo, June 1939. Great number of Egyptian dignitaries are seated with British officers and officials in front row. GOC Egypt, General Gordon-Finlayson, takes salute, then Scots Guards march off.

(Reel 8) Mixed COLOUR and B&W - Family scenes at David Kennard's mother's house in Perthshire, Pitcairns, while Kennard was on home leave from Egypt in Summer 1939; boat, seals and picnic off coast of Argyll. COLOUR - After being called back from leave, Kennard joins HMS Shropshire at Marseilles (Basilica visible on horizon), stops at Grand Harbour, Valletta and visits Acropolis. At sea in small boat off rocky (Aegean?) coastline; sulphurous springs ashore; fishermen with nets. B&W - Walled town.

(Reel 9) B&W - Summer 1939 home leave at Pitcairns; in France en route to Marseilles. Grand Harbour, Valletta. On crowded deck of HMS Shropshire playing cards, continuing voyage with three funnel cruiser to Alexandria (presumably) to rejoin Third Battalion upon outbreak of Second World War.

(Reel 10) B&W - Departing from Dover Harbour (for post-war mission to Greece?), meal halt at Beaune railway station. On board Dunnottar Castle. COLOUR - John Boyle (?), family friend. B&W - Scuttled ships and an aircraft carrier in a harbour (Piraeus?). Great Mosque, Cairo. Skiing near Verona. Italian/Greek village scenes , with jeep visible (Winter 1945 ?). Seafront at Kefala (?). RN motor torpedo boat Molesey in Adriatic, while Kennard based at Salonika for Greek mission. American Army officers with Greek Orthodox priest at Mount Athos.

Scenes of the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards, while stationed in Palestine and Egypt (1938-39), filmed by Lieutenant David Kennard. Other scenes cover pre-war leave in Scotland, car journey to Aqaba, and post-war mission to Greece.

Notes

Summary: precise dates are based on same or similar scenes recorded in Kennard's diaries (Department of Documents) or photographs (Photograph Archive). Major Kennard MC* died on 13/1/1990.