1st Bn The King's Regiment, (Liverpool), Chindits.

He died on 5th March 1990, quite a poignant date. I have not yet claimed his service records, but do have medals, I think they are standard issue. He also had quite a few mementos and several photos of himself and others in Burma. Lot's of very carefully worded and subdued tales too. Apart from the photo in Dehra Dun I have also seen his name in the more mundane aspects of the Battalion Diaries at Kew. Nothing absolutely definitive, nor outstanding, but I would be quite confident.

 

Welcome to bglover. HW your feelings are well founded:

 

Thank you for posting the details. The service number indicates that he originally enlisted into the King's Regiment. He therefore could have been with the 1st battalion on the 5th March 1944 when they landed at Broadway in Burma. I have a database of approximately 650 names of 1st King's men who served in Burma and documentary evidence that confirms that over 400 of them served on Operation Thursday. This does not mean that the others did not just that there is no documentary evidence that they did.

 

Steve,

you have come up trumps again and we should be able to identify the glider. It also confirms that Josiah definitely took part in Operation Thursday and he becomes no 481 on the confirmed list.

Simon

 

Thankfully Josiah's name was fairly uncommon and the search engine went straight to it. This was from the Liverpool Echo dated Friday 22nd December 1944.

 

Jack Lindo's glider B16 landed very soon after take off and they found themselves back at Lallaghat after a late night truck journey, so it may be a possibility. The only confirmed names that I have for B16 are: 3774703 Pte John Joseph Lindo, Harry Winstanley, Robert Norman Campion, James Ashworth, William Fallon.


Two other possibilities are gliders:
B10
Message: 7. 23.50 Hrs 5 March 1944. 2 Gliders & 2 Planes astray. 1 landed 1 mile from 4 Corps. Lt Hurst, Platoon Commander 82 column (10B) Staying at Adv. Div. for night. Stores burnt on landing.

P14
Long Tow Starboard side with P15. Crash landed on a patch of white sand beside a stream. All personnel no more than slightly injured. Ciphers and all secret documents were burnt.

Message: 29. 15.43 Hrs 6th March 1944. Glider P14 crashed RK3338 at 2100 Hrs 5th March. Lt Tramer 81 Column & party (17) O.K. Leaving for Tullihal today.

 

Thank you gentlemen, I never imagined such a story. I am happy to share this with 3 of his sisters, still living in St Helens.

 

Private Josiah Glover 2nd from left front row. Sorry no other names or details.

 

Hi bglover,

That's a great photo. I've seen the man kneeling dead centre somewhere before, but I can't work out where. Very frustrating.

I've attached the full pdf page from the Echo, so you have it for your records.

Steve

 

[QUOTE="bamboo43, post: 746113, member: 11591"

That's a great photo. I've seen the man kneeling dead centre somewhere before, but I can't work out where. Very frustrating.

Steve[/QUOTE]

It looks like James Newton. (Photo lifted from P. Newton's my granddad the Chindit thread).

 

I hope this may please someone. My dad was not a tall man

 

A superb photograph, do you know who the other man is? Are any other King's men mentioned in your father's correspondence or named on the back of photographs? If so, it is just possible that we might be able to identify them.

 

It looks like James Newton. (Photo lifted from P. Newton's my granddad the Chindit thread).[/QUOTE]

Thanks HW, you all will have to forgive me; as you might imagine, my spare time is almost entirely spent looking at wonderful images such as these and trying to recall if I've seen one soldier before in a previous photograph.

 

Hi all, yes my family has the same photo in our small collection, the man in the centre is my grandad James Newton!

bglover, I can DM you my PDF write up of my grandad's story if you'd like, it includes all of the photos we own. If you have any other group photos it would be great to see! I'll let my dad know, I'm sure he'll be really pleased to put another name to the faces in the photo!!

Thanks all
Paul

 

Might this also help to confirm that James Newton was in 'A' Coy, and therefore in the larger group photo in Dehra Dun from 1945 (as we spoke about on the previous page?).

Paul

 

I have no other clues on these photo's. On the back of one is an address in New Zealand, but I think that belongs to my Aunt who emigrated. I will seek out some photos he took at a Chindit re-union in 1984, where the name Ken crops up.

 

That would be very kind of you Paul.

 

Paul,

yes, I think that it probably does but until I manage to get a copy of the 'A' Coy Defence Medal Roll we won't know if there were two men called Newton in the Company.

Simon.

 

Simon is this it? Not the prettiest, and I am not sure if I am being stupid by posting something obvious!!!