START 00:00:00 17:33 Under-exposed travelling shot from a train from Colombo to hill country south of Kandy. At Kadugannawa, a Sri Lankan railway porter pulls traveller's luggage etc on a large hand cart. The sign on the station platform for Kadugannawa on the Colombo - Diyatalawa railway; local inhabitants of all ages and one or two Europeans go about their normal business whilst others, waiting at the station, just stare at the camera. The steam train transporting the crew of HMS Kent during its stop at Kadugannawa. Naval ratings in pith helmets and in tropical uniform after alighting from the train at Diyatalawa, their final stop, a station sign for Diyatalawa and a pile of hammocks inside a shed. A waggon pulled by two oxen transports the sailors' luggage to the camp (the sign on the side of the waggon reads 'P Abdul Rahuman No. 1').

00:01:54 Views of HMS Uva, a Royal Navy holiday station located in hill country at Diyatalawa (Blundell's notes draw attention to a golf course 'brown'). A sign 'Royal Naval Camp' in English and in Sinhalese at the entrance to the camp, the approach road up to the main guardhouse and an old torpedo as a lamp post. Mainly under-exposed shots of a sign that reads 'Howitzer and Fire Engine Shed' and naval ratings operating a hand-powered fire pump. A guard detachment of naval ratings shouldering rifles, a Royal Marine bugler and the 'Colours' ceremony at dawn. The bungalow used as an Officers' Mess and officers from HMS Kent and a civilian guest seated in comfortable chairs on the mess terrace raising their glasses and posing for the camera. The Sri Lankan house keeper.

00:05:01 A sign for Ohiya. Beginning with a short of two men in shorts, the tall one possibly Blundell, standing next to a sign pointing to the rest house at Horton Plains and the bungalow rest house itsef, a sequence showing two walkers (identified by Blundell as Sub-Lieutenants Milligan and Sedden) walking along a path in hill country. Some shots are under-exposed.

Three walkers pose with for the camera in front of a rest house (the tall man in the middle may be Blundell himself). A trek through hill country (Blundell names Sub-Lieutenant Milligan, Midshipman Johnston and Petty Officer Wilson as his fellow walkers) to scale Mount Pedro (known locally as Pidurutalagala and at 8,281 feet (2.534 metres) the highest mountain in Sri Lanka) and views of the conical 7,359 feet (2,243 metres) tall Adam's Peak in the distance. A sign 'Ella 2 miles'. Views of a rest house and the surrounding hill country. A view of Fox Hill above Diyatalawa where in 1913 the crew of HMS Fox (1893-1920) made the shape of a running fox with whitewashed stones.

00:07:46 Scenes (some under-exposed) showing a column of armed sailors marching across the hillsides above HMS Uva and preparing for a tactical exercise; several men attach branches to their pith helmets in a vain attempt at concealment (they are in their tropical whites). Two men dressed up as Adolf Hitler (Petty Officer Wilson on the left) and Unity Mitford (Padre Wanstall on the right) stand guard on Fox Hill. A detachment of armed sailors storm their position and tear down the crudely-fashioned Nazi swastika flag they have set up. Armed sailors on the move (under-exposed shots) and standing in front of the hillside with the running fox symbol. An assortment of bolts, a torpedo detonator and fuses (?) spread out over a canvas ground sheet. A member of Blundell's 'torpedo demolition team' places a demolition charge under a large boulder and lights a fuse; the resulting explosion (filmed from a safe distance) sends a column of smoke and earth skywards, the result a pile of shattered rocks.

00:11:00 A sign at the entrance to a big tea plantation for the Glenonore Tea Company. A Sri Lankan boy poses for the camera. Views of a large building on the tea estate owned by Sir Thomas L Villiers. Under-exposed shots inside the building where tea is dried annd sorted. A large number of local children pose for the camera but do not smile. Brief shots of tea bushes, a woman tea picker posing for the camera and women tea pickers at work.

00:12:54 Colour views of the bungalow used by the Royal Navy C-in-C for Ceylon at HMS Uva - the rust red corrugated roofing is especially vivid. Close ups of colourful tropical flowers and bees collecting pollen.

00:15:13 Monochrome shots of bananas and betel leaves on sale in a street market. Scenes from a bicycle ride with 'Flick' Currie, one of Blundell's colleagues, on a metalled mountain road past a large rest house from Haputale to Ratnapura.

00:17:08 Colour scenes shots showing Currie and Blundell on their bicycles, terraced rice fields in the countryside below them and a sign for Ratnapura. Buddhist monks walk along the harbour mole at Colombo.On board HMS Kent, a ship's mascot - a black kitten with an identity disc - on the quarterdeck. Scenes filmed on Christmas Day 1939 showing Blundell on deck with a list and members of the crew who have dressed up in women's evening dresses emerging from down below onto the quarterdeck. Another crew member in fancy dress camps it up for the camera as he poses with his shipmates. END 00:20:19

Silent 8mm film, mainly monochrome but with colour sections, taken by Lieutenant-Commander George C Blundell showing the crew of HMS Kent enjoying some rest and relaxation in hill country in the southern half of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), December 1939 - February 1940.

Notes

Summary: with the rank of Lieutenant-Commander, George Blundell (1904-1997) served on board HMS Kent as a torpedo and electrical specialist from December 1937 to January 1941. As HMS Kent was not armed with torpedoes, Blundell was put in charge of the depth charge party and the ship's anchors as well as serving as the China Station's fleet torpedo officer until the end of 1939. HMS Kent was a County Class cruiser, launched in March 1926 and commissioned in June 1928. Her first ten years of service were spent in the Far East with the 5th Cruiser Squadron, returning to the UK for part reconstruction in 1938. In early 1939 she returned to the Far East and remained in tropical waters until August 1940, when she joined the Mediterranean Fleet in Alexandria. After being badly damaged by an Italian torpedo in September 1940 (see MGH 2740), HMS Kent spent more than one year in dock for repairs and was then assigned to the Home Fleet. In January 1945, after three years of duty in northern waters, she was paid off into reserve and scrapped in 1948.

Remarks: unusually for Blundell, he had problems in judging the light level at various points in this reel. Yet more material here for anyone who wishes to study the connection between cross-dressing and life on board a Royal Navy warship at sea.