Sale veteran relives Burma memories in lost footage documentary 'Messages Home: Lost Films of the British Army'

A 60-minute special called 'Messages Home: Lost Films of the British Army' will be on TV screens on Sunday June 26 at 8pm – and Ken Chadwick is one of the stars of the show.

‘Messages Home’ celebrates Britain’s 14th Army by revealing unique filmed morale-boosting messages they sent home from Burma during World War Two.

The ‘Calling Blighty’ footage had been lost for years but was rediscovered in a basement in Manchester.

In a unique project, the surviving veterans and their families have come together to watch the films for the first time in 70 years, with cameras capturing their reactions.

Ken, who has lived in Sale all his life, is one of the soldiers featured.

The ‘Calling Blighty’ film crew caught up with a 21-year-old Ken on the bank of the Irrawaddy river in 1944.

He said: “I’m afraid I didn’t say a lot. In them days you weren’t used to being filmed or anything like that. We didn’t get much news. Nothing at all that used to come through as regards home. I don’t know who called it the Forgotten Army. But that’s how it turned out.”

Ken, 93, standing in front of a still of his 21-year-old self from the 'Calling Blighty' project. Credit: Channel 4

As the focus was on fighting Hitler in Europe, the soldiers in Burma were largely overlooked, eventually becoming known as the ‘Forgotten Army’. Home leave wasn't possible, post was slow, and sometimes letters didn't get home at all.

With morale low, the Ministry of Defence decided upon a scheme to provide a much-needed boost for the soldiers in the Far East and their families back home. A cinematic scheme ‘Calling Blighty’ sent camera crews to film with the troops in Asia.

It was a huge undertaking. 391 editions, each lasting between ten and fifteen minutes were filmed. Some 8,000 men and a few women sent personal messages home to loved ones.

Families and friends back in Britain were invited to watch them at special cinema screenings and catch a glimpse of their relatives on the big screen. Tragically many of those featured would already be dead by the time the films reached home.

Ken pictured during the war

Sadly, many of these films were lost over the years. Only 48 of the 391 editions have ever been found – 23 of them in Manchester.

For decades after the war, this lost treasure lay undiscovered in a basement of Manchester Town Hall until a workman discovered them and gave them to the North West Film Archive, part of Manchester Metropolitan University.

But there was an extra discovery that came with the rediscovered films. All of the original paperwork identifying not only the servicemen on screen, but also the names and addresses of those back home, accompanied the reels. Marion Hewitt of the NWFA archive describes the lists as ‘gold dust’.

To commemorate the 70th Anniversary of VJ Day, the North West Film Archive embarked on an ambitious project to contact as many of the veterans and families of the men featured in their Calling Blighty films as possible – and bring them together at HOME cinema in Manchester for a recreation of the original wartime screening.

Ken, who is now 93, comes face-to-face with his 21-year-old self during the documentary

Emma Morgan, head of Popular Factual at Oxford Scientific Films, which produced the documentary, said: “When we first heard about the North West Film Archive’s incredible discovery of the lost Calling Blighty film reels and their plan to contact the veterans and their families, we thought it was a unique, very personal and highly emotional way to tell the story of the everyday heroes from the North West who found themselves fighting in an extremely tough and often forgotten episode of World War II.”

Don’t forget to tune in tonight at 8pm. If you miss it, catch up on 4OD.