Mandalay Hill

Discussion in 'Burma & India' started by wtid45, May 6, 2009.

  1. apw2007

    apw2007 Member

    All this is very confusing for a layman!
     
  2. apw2007

    apw2007 Member

    I'm back, with different query, and hoping someone can help - I'm trying to get details of a Col Moore MBE

    I have a photo with the caption "Col Moore MBE" and on the back is written "The Admin Com & I" and it's dated April 1946. It does not say where it's taken but it is on a page with pictures of Mandalay but suspect that is just a coincedence - the photo album was compiled in 1947/48 so it's possible he wasn't a Col or awarded the MBE at the time of the photo. Judging from the picture Col Moore was most probably in his late 30's or even 40's at the time.

    My mother, who was with Toc H, was in Meiktila with the 12th Army in 1946 and I know she visited Mandalay as her financee, who was with 1/15 Punjab Regiment, was killed there.

    Someone very kindly sourced a ist of the all the Moore's who were awarded MBE's prior to 1949 but none were Col, one was a Lt Col (Mervyn Reginald Moore - 157544) but can't seem to find anything to linking him to Burma - none of the others seemed a match.

    http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_col=200&_cr1=WO+373&_hb=tna&_dt=H&_ln=moore&_occ=member+of+the+british+empire&_p=1925&Refine+dates=Refine

    Many thanks, Andrew
     
  3. Charpoy Chindit

    Charpoy Chindit Junior Member

    There was a Lt-Col William Moore, North Staffordshire Regiment, who was awarded an MBE for Burma in 1945 (as a Maj), and who died 25/09/46, aged 49, as a Lt-Col, and is buried in Kirkee War Cemetery.

    There was also a George Moore who was awarded an MBE for Burma in 1945, but he was a Capt in R Sigs.

    The problem is that your Col Moore's MBE may not have been awarded for Burma.

    Is the "I" in the photo caption your Mother? If you could pin down which unit Col Moore was "Admin Comd" it might make things easier.
     
  4. apw2007

    apw2007 Member

    Many thanks for the reply.

    The "I" in the caption was my mother. Unfortunately I don't have any more information and was hoping the there would be enough clues to track him down.

    There is a chance that my mother made a mistake and it should have been Lt-Col because judging from the picture he could be the right age as William Moore.

    Would the North Staffordshire Regiment have been anywhere near Meiktila Lake or Mandalay in April 1946?
     

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  5. Charpoy Chindit

    Charpoy Chindit Junior Member

    "Would the North Staffordshire Regiment have been anywhere near Meiktila Lake or Mandalay in April 1946?"

    No, the 1 N Staffs were in Bihar at the time, but just because he was a Lt-Col in the N Staffs doesn't mean he was serving with, or commanding, a unit of that regiment. Indeed the Indian Army List 04/45 lists him as a (substantive) Capt serving with GHQ (India); so a staff officer of some sort.

    I've just spotted the full photograph in the other thread. Are you sure it is in Burma? Is it captioned as such, or is that just supposition?
     
  6. apw2007

    apw2007 Member

    It doesn't say Burma but the date on the back of the picture is April 1946 (my mother was in Burma between January and September 1946) and it appears in her album of her time in Burma - she was a perfectionist so I have no reason to doubt the location.

    The book "Fighting with the Fourteenth Army" by James Luto shows a link between 1/15th Punjab and 1st North Staffordshire Regiment and Fouteenth Army

    https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5s07BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA220&dq=where+were+North+Staffordshire+Regiment+based+in+Burma&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ChcLVYihDMbvaIqggbgE&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=where%20were%20North%20Staffordshire%20Regiment%20based%20in%20Burma&f=false

    Wikapedia - Fourteenth Army: Shortly after the fall of Rangoon, the Army headquarters was relieved of responsibility for operations in Burma. A new Twelfth Army headquarters was formed from XXXIII Corps HQ and took over IV Corps. Fourteenth Army HQ now moved to Ceylon to plan operations to recapture Malaya and Singapore. It controlled XV Corps and the newly raised Indian XXXIV Corps.

    Would it be feasible that he somehow stayed in Burma rather than move to Ceylon with the Fourteenth Army (my mother was with the Tweltfh Army at Meiktila Lake)?

    PS I have just found a letter dated 18 April 1946 (same month as picture) giving my mothers address as "Toc H with HMF, 43 Station Staff Office, Burma Command"(presumably this is Meiktila) in which she says she was in Pegu at the end of February and shortly afterwards went to Mandalay. In the letter she also mentions Kalaw (hill station) and Chauk where she was a guest of Burmah Oil Company but doesn't give dates.

    This all very new to me so if I'm making too many assumptions I'm sorry!
     
  7. Charpoy Chindit

    Charpoy Chindit Junior Member

    43 Station Staff was indeed at Meiktila. I have no idea what the War Establishment of a Station Staff was, but it is entirely possible that it may have been commanded by a Col or Lt-Col. Whether that was Lt-Col Moore, N Staffs, can only be answered in the, admittedly unlikely, event that a War Diary exists for that unit.
     
  8. apw2007

    apw2007 Member

    Many thanks for your help - it looks as though the 'Col Moore MBE' is going to elude me for the time being.
     
  9. Djamesslattery

    Djamesslattery New Member

    Here is my father's MC citation for the operation known as Duffy, just days before the fall of Mandalay
     

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