Commemorating Royal Signals War Dead – New Page, ‘M’

The Royal Signals casualties whose surnames begin with ‘M’ have now been included on the War Dead page on this website (the document opens as a pdf).

Of the first letter for surnames in England, ‘M’ accounts for about 7% but this rises to over 20% in Scotland. Notwithstanding the large number of Scottish soldiers who have served with Royal Signals, surnames beginning with ‘M’ tend to the former, making up a little over 8% of Royal Signals casualties (446 all ranks).

Malbork Commonwealth War Cemetery in the north of Poland. Buried here is Signalman Cecil McCormack of 2nd Anti-Aircraft Brigade Signal Section who was captured in the latter stages of the Battle of France and held at Stalag XX-A in Thorn (Toruń) in Poland, where he died as a prisoner of war on 25 December 1940. (Photo: C.W.G.C.)

The casualties include:

One hundred and seventeen who were killed in action or died of wounds or were killed as a result of terrorist action, including:

In the early stages of the Malayan Campaign, in the Battle of Jitra fought by 11th Indian Division, Captain J. L. Mainprize, Officer Commanding 28th Indian Infantry Brigade Signal Section was killed in action on 12 December 1941 with Captain A. S. Hargreaves, 15th Indian Infantry Brigade Signal Section, when they were caught by crossfire while travelling in a vehicle near Gurun. On 15 December Captain K. Mole was posted from 9th Indian Divisional Signals to 15th Indian Infantry Brigade Signal Section with Second Lieutenant R. D. G. Meek to replace Captain Hargreaves and Second Lieutenant A. J. Aitken, the latter having been killed in action on 13 December. Both Captain Mole and Second Lieutenant Meek were killed in action on 11 February 1942 in an ambush in the Battle of Bukit Timah.

Following the ‘Quit India’ speech by Mahatma Gandhi in August 1942, a series of bomb attacks were carried out across India by activists allied to the Indian National Congress. On 26 January 1943 an explosion occurred at the ‘Capitol Talkies’ cinema at East Street, Poona in the Bombay Presidency (Pune, Maharashtra) that mortally wounded Lance Corporal R. G. Miller of 2nd Divisional Signals; he died of his injuries later that night at No. 3 (Indian) General Hospital, Poona. Two other soldiers died and 13 were wounded. A second bomb was found that evening at another cinema but it was rendered safe by the soldier who found it.

Lieutenant D. W. Mackay, 7th Indian Divisional Signals, who was killed in action on 6 February 1944 during the attack on the headquarters of 7th Indian Division during the Burma Campaign. After the attackers had established light machine-guns of the ridge north of Laung Chaung, the Indian other ranks of an engineer battalion holding a portion of this sector became restive. Lieutenant Mackay, in charge of the divisional signals’ defence in this area, reported to the commanding officer for instructions. Having been ordered to make the 40-strong detachment of the engineer battalion stay in their positions, he returned to that area but on the way was badly wounded in both legs. Also in this area was Lieutenant H. D. Crittall who was awarded a Military Cross for his part in the defence and for attempting to save the life of Lieutenant Mackay. Eight Royal Signals and 18 Indian Signal Corps all ranks were lost in the action.

On 13 August 1967 in a grenade attack on Singapore Lines, Aden during the Aden Emergency in the Federation of South Arabia Signalman M. S. Mileson of 2 Squadron, 15th Signal Regiment was killed and three men were wounded.

In addition, 14 men were killed in action at sea, including:

Serjeant H. W. W. Middleton, serving with Special Communications Unit No. 1, part of Section VIII (Communications) of the Secret Intelligence Service, had served during the First World War as a Boy 1st Class at the Battle of Jutland on board the battleship H.M.S. Barham. Recruited for service with Special Communications Unit No. 1, he was killed in action at sea on 21 February 1941 when the ship in which he was travelling was torpedoed. The ship has not been identified.

Serjeant A. Murray of No. 21 Army Air Support Control Signal Section was killed in action at sea on 12 September 1942 en route from Suez to the United Kingdom via Cape Town when the troopship and prisoner of war transport R.M.S. Laconia was sunk by U-156 in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, 800 miles south of Monrovia, Liberia. Over 1,600 people were lost (most being Italian prisoners of war) and Lieutenant P. W. McCreeth of No. 3 General Headquarters Signals was the only other Royal Signals casualty in the incident.

Signalman J. Marshall, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Brigade Signal Section, who was killed in action on 26 July 1943 during Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, when M.V. Fishpool exploded in Syracuse harbour after being attacked the previous night. Also killed were Corporal G. Roberts and Signalmen J. C. Beck, J. R. Clark and V. P. Donnelly. For their bravery during the attack Corporal C. H. Yates was awarded the British Empire Medal and Captain W. J. T. Stewart was mentioned in despatches. Several other awards were made to Royal Navy personnel for gallantry in the aftermath of the attack.

Eighty-two men died as prisoners of war in the Second World War—70 as prisoners of the Japanese and 12 as prisoners of the western Axis powers. The majority died while working as labour on the Thai-Burma Railway but five prisoners were killed in action or died of wounds (three in air raids, one soon after being captured and one having escaped) and 14 prisoners of war were killed in action at sea (10 in the Far East and four in the Mediterranean) when ships they were aboard were sunk by Allied submarines and aircraft (over 10,000 Allied prisoners of war were lost at sea in the Far East). These include:

Signalman R. D. Millar, 12th Indian Infantry Brigade Signal Section, was captured during the Malayan Campaign/Battle of Singapore. He was transported from Singapore to Kuching, Sarawak on the S.S. Imabari Maru (S.S. DeKlerk) on 28 March 1943 (with the Australian ‘‘E’ Force’ that was destined for Sandakan) and held at Batu Lingtang, and then transported from Kuching to Labuan Island, Borneo in August 1944 (the ‘Labuan Party’) to construct an airfield, where he died as a prisoner of war on 5 January 1945. Of the 25 Royal Signals all ranks transported with ‘‘E’ Force’ (two officers, a warrant officer and 22 other ranks), 16 died, 10 of whom died on Labuan or later having been taken off the island. None of the 100 prisoners from Sandakan or 200 men from Kuching (the ‘Labuan Party’) that were transferred to Labuan Island survived—more than half died on the island and the remainder died (some being murdered) between March and June 1945 in Brunei and at locations in and around Miri, Sarawak.

Signalman R. Miles, formerly Malaya Command Signals, was captured during the Malayan Campaign/Battle of Singapore and transported to work on the Thai-Burma Railway on 9 October 1942 in the ‘River Valley Road Party’ (Train 1). He worked in ‘No. 1 Group’ and returned to Singapore in June 1944. Transported on 2 February 1945 on board S.S. Haruyasa Maru to Saigon in French Indochina (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam), he was killed in action as a prisoner of war on 9 April 1945 when a train carrying P.W. from the camp at Long Thành (No. 10 Branch Camp) to another camp was attacked by a United States Army Air Forces Consolidated B-24 Liberator on the North-South Railway near Tan Son Hoa on the eastern outskirts of Saigon. Fifty prisoners of war were killed in the attack and five were seriously injured, losing limbs.

Seven men died in air crashes, including:

Signalman A. D. McCormick, ‘G’ Company, Air Formation Signals, was wounded on 18 December 1944 during the Dekemvriana (the ‘December events’ preceding the Greek Civil War) in the attack by the Greek People’s Liberation Army (E.L.A.S.) at Kifisia, the site of Air Headquarters, Greece, in which Drivers H. Summers and J. M. Vitty were killed in action. He was killed on 21 December 1944 when South African Air Force C-47 Dakota, serial KG498, crashed near Bari, Italy while travelling from Athens, Greece to Brindisi, Italy with four aircrew and 19 mostly wounded all ranks. There was only one survivor. Signalman D. Laurie was also killed in the crash.

Corporal M. P. Murphy, 22nd Special Air Service Regiment Signal Troop who was killed on 4 May 1963 when Royal Air Force Bristol Belvedere, serial XG473, of No. 66 Squadron, Royal Air Force crashed in the Trusan River Valley near Long Merarap, Sarawak during the Borneo Campaign. All nine crew and passengers were killed.[1]

Ninety-nine men died of disease or natural causes, many from diseases that today are readily treatable,Sixty men died in road traffic accidents, three died in ‘battle accidents’ (one of which was also a traffic accident) and 16 men died in various other accidents,Fifteen men took their own lives,Two men died as a result of ‘misadventure’—one who inadvertently drank poison, and Signalman J. Metheringham from 2nd Parachute Brigade Signal Section who had been engaged in a series of armed robberies with Lance Corporal W. T. Davies and both of whom, whilst resisting arrest, were shot and killed by two members of the Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali, which acted as a security and police force in support of the Allied forces after the Italian Armistice. Regardless of the manner of their death, they are considered war casualties and both men are commemorated by the C.W.G.C. and in the Royal Signals Roll of Honour.Two men were murdered:

After the war but in the period of commemoration, on 9 October 1947 Mat Taram bin Sa’al was travelling with his family on the train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. He ran amok with a knife in the restaurant car and attacked four Royal Signals soldiers and two civilians and, after jumping from the train near Bangi south of Kuala Lumpur, attacked more people in a rubber plantation and alongside the railway. Serjeant H. V. K. Marston was killed during the initial attack; Driver J. Cormack was severely wounded and died of his injuries on 10 October 1947; Driver Robert Ralston was severely injured and another soldier was slightly wounded. Nine civilians were killed in the rampage or died of their injuries and ten other civilians were wounded. The killer was later arrested, and in April 1948 was tried and sentenced to be confined at a mental hospital. The Royal Signals soldiers were travelling to the United Kingdom to be discharged at the end of their service.

Following serious riots and looting in Ismailia in the Canal Zone in the autumn of 1951, the police in the city were reinforced by a large contingent of armed auxiliary police from Cairo, many of whom were based at a police sub-barracks, a former hospital known as the Bureau Sanitaire. In mid-November, however, the police perpetrated a series of fights, some through indiscipline others deliberate, that resulted in a serious escalation of violence against British troops and their families in the town. On 17 November the trouble came to a head when a patrol roused a policeman from sleep who then fired on the patrol and ran into the Bureau Sanitaire crying that an attempt had been made to kidnap him. The police in the barracks rushed into the street and there, and from the barracks itself, proceeded to fire at anything that moved. After several hours, the police were persuaded to stop firing and it was then that the body of the first British casualty was discovered near the Bureau Sanitaire; Major J. C. S. McDouall of General Headquarters, Middle East Land Forces had been beaten and then shot at close range. Five more British military personnel were killed over the next 24 hours.  A Royal Signals N.C.O., Sergeant J. G. Christie, was awarded a British Empire Medal for his bravery during the troubles.

Five men drowned while swimming when off duty,Five men died as a result of the negligent discharge of a weapon,Nineteen men died of unknown causes. These were mostly men who died after the war had ended but in the period of post-war commemoration, and most probably died of disease or natural causes.

1. (Back) Those killed were:
Crew: 607191 Flight Lieutenant Arthur Paul John Dobson; 166081 Flight Lieutenant Derek Reginald Watson Viner; and 3524433 Corporal John Llewelyn Williams from No. 66 Squadron, Royal Air Force.
Military Passengers: 297716 Major Ronald Henry Douglas Norman M.B.E., M.C., The Parachute Regiment and Second-in-Command, 22nd Special Air Service Regiment; 189285 Major Henry Arthur Irwin Thompson M.C., Royal Highland Fusiliers and Operations Officer, 22nd Special Air Service Regiment; and 410460 Captain John Frank Conington, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) and 22nd Special Air Service Regiment.
Civilian Passengers: Mr. Michael Henry Day, Foreign Office (Secret Intelligence Service); and Mr. Derrick Stanley Hatton Reddish M.M., The Borneo Company.
7891584 Corporal D. S. H. Reddish, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was awarded the Military Medal for his gallant conduct during the Western Desert Campaign (LG 20 January 1942; 35422, p. 330. Recommendation: THA: WO 373/18/295.) Later Major D. H. S. Reddish M.M. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct for his service during the Borneo Campaign; the award, authorised before he died, was dated 3 May 1963 (LG 28 May 1963; 43003, p. 4597).

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