This week I have been back in Malaya again with 1/Suffolk, reliving campaigns past and remembering people who had slipped from my memory.
The generous gift of a photograph album that belonged to a member of 3 Platoon, ‘A’ Company (The ‘Phantoms’) has been a lovely journey way back into the past remembering all those men of the platoon that I was fortunate enough to meet. It’s been a pleasant escape for a few hours after work each night, to come home and look again, spotting another familiar face peering out at me from its pages.
What was most interesting is that inside the rear cover is a complete list of platoon members from 1950-51, something I have never seen before. Reading down the list, faces suddenly spring back into memory; Jimmy Kelly, Ray Burdette, George Applin, Boz Bostock, Vic Lyon, Bernie Mott, Ted Monk and Dave Edwards - all men I knew and some that I was fortunate enough to interview.
Many of these men were members of the Hemel Hempstead Branch of the Old Comrades Association, and many were sought out by Ray Burdette himself, who with the help of fellow Malaya veteran, Tony Rogers, took the branch to over two hundred members; many of whom who had served in Malaya. The task now is to start to piece together a ‘who’s who’s’ of 3 Platoon. I know many, but there is still over half the platoon that I would like to put a name to a face. Perhaps it cannot be done, perhaps the time has passed, but I will still try!
From an ‘anorak’s’ point of view, the album covers a fascinating period of transition; the changeover from the older scrubbed wartime webbing, to the newer lightweight jungle green version. Insignia too is curious and many men sport Suffolk Regiment cap badges tucked into the jungle hats (many of which look to be wartime patterns made in both the US and India). Whilst it is rarely seen, in 3 Platoon, it seems to be the ‘norm’ so the next task will be to scan in some of the smaller photos (there are over 250in the album) and see if any more known faces can be seen.
A nice winter project, to be squeezed in between writing up book number four on another battalion of the Suffolk Regiment and getting a personal memoir completed, so there lots going on at the moment.
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