| Description | Track 1: recording setup 0.18 mins
Interview with John Crossley and his wife. Mrs Crossley discusses coming to India in 1928 with her German father, her family background, her travels around India by train and plane during the 1930s and her first impressions of the country. She talks about her education at the Cathedral High School and the J. J School of Art in Bombay, and her marriage to her first husband, who was German, at eighteen. She explains that she had to spend the Second World War in Germany and talks about her second marriage to John Crossley. John Crossley joins the conversation and talks about being born in Madras in 1899 and his father's career in the army, his family background in Leeds, and his own career in the Indian Army. He goes on to talk about owning a plantation business in East Africa, his experiences during the Second World War, witnessing the violence surrounding Partition, and his subsequent career working for Liptons in India and starting a business manufacturing packing cases and cardboard. He describes his experience in attempting to capture the German fleet in Goa and other incidents during the war, and discusses the periods of his life he has spent in India. Mrs Crossley tries to explain the attraction of the East for her, her interest in spiritualism and yoga, and her feelings of restriction when she visits the West. She misses the climate, and being able to have servants, talks about her sons and their plans to migrate to Canada (tracks 2-12).
John Crossley talks about the social work that he does, practising homeopathy, distributing American aid to children in the form of medicines and food, and helping people to make items for sale. He talks about his return visits to England, the changes in peoples manners that he thinks have taken place over the years in both England and Calcutta. Mrs Crossley talks about the social problems she thinks exist in India, the poverty and her belief that the population needs to be controlled, and Mr Crossley explains the history of some of the antiques he received from his grandfather, who was an army commander during the 1857 uprisings, including items that are said to have belonged to Clive of India (tracks 13-16).
Total: 32.25 mins
Dubber's reference number: PLA KF565D0565480 |