Ted
was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire on 5th April 1921.
He first enlisted in
the Territorial Army in 1938, joining 277 Field Battery, R.A. His subsequent units
were 122 Field Battery and then 56 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery stationed at
Plymouth.
In February 1942 Ted
was sent overseas and was in a convoy, heading for Singapore. They had got
half-way across the Indian Ocean, when news was received of the fall of
Singapore. The convoy was urgently turned back and landed instead at Bombay,
India.
At
that time a new Airborne Division was being formed in India,
comprising Ghurkha, Indian and British troops. Ted volunteered to
join them and became a member of 50th Indian Parachute Brigade,
Signals Section, in December 1944.
The 44th
Indian Airborne Division had frequently been briefed for an
operational role, but these had all been cancelled, though 50th
Para Brigade had been heavily involved as ground troops to stem
the Japanese thrust in 1944 and had lost heavily at the battle of
Sangshak. Their final action was a parachute drop at Elephant
Point during the recapture of Rangoon.
After the
surrender of the Japanese, teams of British parachutists, of which
Ted was one, went to various prison camps in Malaya and Burma, to
secure and organise the release of the hundreds of Allied
Prisoners-of-War, who had endured such a nightmare since
1942.
