We all moan about BA's ground handling procedures, lounges, food etc. In the Imperial Airways days it was even more challenging.
Watch this 1937 film (below) about their staging post at Sharjah's old airfield, now subsumed in the city itself, but much like this when I first operated from there in 1961.
Start at the 5 mins point when the inflight rations start arriving by donkey if you don't want the history of the city itself ...!
