Yesterday's Witness S12 E03 Soldiers Three

In the 1880s Kipling wrote: ' Single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints.' And 50 years later, it seems, they still didn't. Life in the British Army in India in the 1930s is described in this programme by a fusilier, a drummer and a private. ' What a so-and-so country to come to, I thought. But there we are, we've just got to make the best of it.' They saw action on the Frontier, helped quell riots, went out in the midday sun ... But most of the time was spent as single men in barricks'-just standing by. And yet: Duty was a word that had a meaning for us. And we had a duty to the King Emperor: to keep the peace and to set an example.'