Last week (13th October), local historic re-enactor Mike Mount very kindly donated a gift to the Trust and to our former NAAFI building – a souvenir programme for a wartime entertainment. Our HQ and the Roman circus centre are housed in the former NAAFI of the Artillery (Le Cateau) Barracks of the old Colchester garrison. We don’t know where the programme is from or where the entertainment was presented. The front cover of the programme reads:

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N.A.A.F.I.

PRESENTS
E.N.S.A. ENTERTAINMENTS FOR H.M.FORCES

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THAT’LL
BE THE DAY

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A Sophisticated West End Revue
Written and Produced by

LESLIE JULIAN JONES

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SOUVENIR PROGRAMME

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The programme includes a hand-written date (15.9.45). (WW2 ended in August 1945 but demobilistaion of the British Serices continued until the end of 1946.) The entertainment was presented by the NAAFI (the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) and performed by ENSA. ENSA – the wartime Entertainments National Service Association – was an organisation which was set up in 1939 to provide entertainment for British Service personnel during WW2 (1939-45), and it operated as part of the NAAFI. (Apparently, the slang interpretation of ‘ENSA’ was ‘Every Night Something Atrocious’.) The programme is very simple, printed in black with some red on white paper and folded. A ‘revue’ is a light theatrical entertainment of songs, dances and sketches and, in this particular show, these had titles such as ‘Victory Day in Piccadilly’, ‘Songs of the 20s’, ‘Ballet’, ‘Dictation please’, and ‘Hundreds and thousands’. These were performed by different members of the troupe and the ‘full company’ was on stage three times during the revue. The eight performers’ names are given along with those of the drummer and the Musical Director *.

The Trust’s NAAFI is almost identical to a surviving NAAFI at the former Cavalry Barracks next door. The NAAFI at the Kirkee & McMunn Barracks may also have been on an almost-identical plan. There were also Regimental Institutes (buildings which housed the NAAFIs) at Sobraon Barracks, Goojerat Barracks and at Hyderabad Barracks and, probably, one at Meanee Barracks, all within the old garrison. The former Garrison theatre still stands at the corner of Circular Road West and Circular Road South. The garrison theatre and the barracks NAAFIs would each have included a stage for entertainments for the soldiers here, especially during WW2. These are very interesting buildings. Our NAAFI still has its small stage, in the former men’s restaurant: this would have been equipped with a NAAFI piano, but we think that it would have been too small for shows. Musical servicemen would probably have played the piano for their friends and led sing-songs here; officers would have made announcements from the stage; and small bands might have played here for dances (there is a photograph which shows a small American Army band practising on the stage of a NAAFI in England during WW2 (held by the Imperial War Museum: view image at www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205200566 )). The stage in our former NAAFI doesn’t look big enough for eight performers and a piano: we think that larger ENSA shows at Colchester garrison, such as a revue, would have been presented at the Garrison theatre, not far from our NAAFI.

In September, the Trust held a NAAFI open day here at the Roman circus centre, and it included a small display of vintage NAAFI artefacts which we launched that day. Mike Mount and Penny Mount are both historical re-enactors and they brought their collection of WW2 Home Front artefacts to the open day. Mike has donated the programme for inclusion in our display.

Many thanks to Mike for donating the programme to the Trust, and thanks to Mike and Penny for their great contribution to our NAAFI open day in September!

The images show the programme, which is 14 cm by just under 11 cm. [Image to follow.] The actual NAAFI organisation is currently being wound down and will cease trading early in 2017.

* A quick internet search of the performers listed in the programme has produced some interesting information about Peggy de Reske, Barri Chatt and Leslie Julian Jones. Apparently, Chatt was a ‘dancer, comedian and drag artiste’. Leslie Julian Jones was a writer, lyricist and composer, performer, and producer. He wrote the song ‘More Than Ever’ for the 1947 British film Brighton Rock. He also composed the songs ‘Lady Windermere’s Fan‘, ‘They say’, ‘You’ll Never Know a Love Like Mine’, and ‘The Crooked Man Theme‘. He co-wrote the words and music of the song ‘One perfect moment’. The ‘non-stop’ revue Les Folies de Paris et Londres featured music and lyrics by Jones and he wrote the revues Nine Sharp, Rise Above It (1941), and Better late (1946). He wrote the scripts for a  weekly programme ‘The Stuff We Give The Troops‘, which was presented by the Department of National Service Entertainment (NAAFI) and included the ENSA Variety Orchestra: it was broadcast on BBC Forces radio during 1943. He also wrote the ‘ENSA half-hour’ for BBC radio.

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