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1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)
13th Feb 1942 Reliefs
20th Apr 1942 Stragglers
Feb 1944 Chindit force preparations In early February 1944 preparations began for the 2nd Chindit Expedition. The Special Force or 3rd Indian Division as it was known consisted of the following units, which were split into Columns.
3rd West African Brigade and 14th Brigade
- 6th Btn. Nigeria Regiment. (Columns 66 & 39)
- 2nd Btn. Black Watch (Columns 42 & 73)
- 7th Btn Nigeria Regiment (Columns 29 & 35)
- 1st Btn. Beds & Herts Regiment (Columns 16 & 61)
- 12th Btn. Nigeria Regt (Columns 12 & 43)
- 2nd Btn. York & Lancaster Regiment (Columns 84 & 65)
- 7th Btn Leicestershire Regiment (Columns 47 & 74)
- 54th Field Company, Royal Engineers
77 Brigade and 111 Brigade
- 3rd Btn. 6th Gurkha Rifles (Columns 36 & 63)
- 1st Btn. Cameronians (Columns 26 & 90)
- 1st Btn. Kings (Liverpool) Regiment (Columns 81 & 82)
- 2nd Btn. Kings Own Royal (Lancaster) Regiment (Columns 41 & 46)
- 1st Btn. Lancashire Fusiliers (Columns 20 & 50)
- 3rd Btn. 4th Gurkha Rifles (Column 30)
- 1st Btn. South Staffordshire Regiment (Columns 38 & 80)
- 3rd Btn. 9th Gurkha Rifles (Columns 57 & 93)
23rd Indian Infantry Brigade
- 1st Btn. Essex Regiment (Columns 44 & 56)
- 2nd Btn. Duke of Wellington's Regiment (Columns 33 & 76)
- 4th Btn. Border Regiment (Columns 34, 55)
- 60th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, deployed as infantry, (Columns 60 & 68)
- 12th Field Company, Royal Engineers
16th Brigade Morris Force
- 1st Btn. Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment (Columns 21 & 22)
- 4th Btn. 9th Gurkha Rifles (Columns 49 & 94)
- 2nd Btn. Leicestershire Regiment (Columns 17 & 71)
- 3rd Btn. 4th Gurkha Rifles (Column 30)
- 45th Recce Regiment (Columns 45 & 54)
- 51st and 69th Field Regiments, Royal Artillery, deployed as infantry (Columns 51 & 69)
- 2nd Field Company, Royal Engineers
Dah Force
Stronghold Defences
- R S & U Troop 160th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery (25 Pounders)
- W X Y & Z Troops 69th Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery (Bofors)
Divisional Troops
- 219th Field Park Company, Royal Engineers
- Detachment 2nd Burma Rifles
- 145th Brigade Company, R.A.S.C.
- 61st Air Supply Company, R.A.S.C.
- 2nd Indian Air Supply Company, R.I.A.S.C.
Feb 1944 Chindit force preparations
21st of April 1944 Change of Plan
24th of April 1944 Orders Recieved
1st of May 1944 Report
6th May 1944 Orders
10th May 1944 Evacuation
3rd of November 1945 ADM Instruction No 2
24th of November 1945 On the Move
If you can provide any additional information, especially on actions and locations at specific dates, please add it here.
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Those known to have served with 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) during the Second World War 1939-1945. - Crawford John McLaughlin .
- Page Albert. Rflmn. (d.6th April 1944 )
- Roberts Elijah. Rflmn. (d.6th April 1944)
- Scott Robert. Pte.
- Stewart Matthew Hamilton. Sgt.
- Sword Jack J. Cpl.
- Tomalin Cyril George. L/Cpl.
- Viner Laurence William. Rflmn. (d.28th Feb 1942)
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
Records of 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) from other sources.
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Want to know more about 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)? There are:1344 items tagged 1st Battalion, Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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John McLaughlin Crawford 1st Btn Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) John Crawford, born 11th of September 1913 served with the 1st Battalion Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in WW2.
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Sgt. Matthew Hamilton "Jock" Stewart 1st Btn. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) Matthew Stewart was my Father. He served in Palestine during the Arab spring in 1936. He was also in India from 1937 to 1939 until the outbreak of the 2nd World War when he served in Burma.
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L/Cpl. Cyril George "Bud" Tomalin 1st Btn. C Coy. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) My father, Cyril Tomalin (known as Bud or Tom) served for 10 years with the 1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) in India before the 2nd World War and in Burma during the War. He was involved in the retreat from Prome back to India via the Chindwin River in 1942. He was a PT instructor with the Battalion.
He would not talk about his dreadful experiences to us children and I have only lately been able to piece together part of his story from my Mother, his Army records and other records on the internet. He did not claim his War medals and it was only after he died that my Mother sent for them.
What I have discovered is that he joined the Regiment in London on the 13th Nov 1935 with his friend Lawrence William Viner 3245258 and served until 30th of May 1945. He spent most of his service life stationed with the Regiment in India. He did not altogether enjoy Army life and on telling his father this his father offered to buy him out. Tom would not accept this though and said he had made his bed so must lie in it.
He and his Battalion were amongst the first troops to be sent into Burma to deal with the invading Japanese but found them a more formidable enemy than expected. On the 28th of Feb 1942, he was threatened with court-martial, his crime being to use wood from the side of an Army lorry for a make-shift cross for his best friend Laurie, who had died beside him.
Although there are several references to the Retreat from Burma, I get the impression it was not so well organised as it sounded. Certainly, my father was separated from the main body and had to make his own way back from Prome to the Indian border, using his skill and the stars to guide him. He was leading a small group of Cameronians and, at one point, one of their number, Charles Connor 10602700, said he thought they were going the wrong way and left to make his own way. Unfortunately, he was captured by the Japanese and ended up on the Burma Railway where he died on the 8th of Apr 1944. When he reached the Chindwin River it was heavily swollen with the rains. The Japanese were firing on them from the jungle and many soldiers lay dead on the banks or drowned in the river. My father had the foresight to collect as many water bottles as he could from the bodies strewn on the bank and emptied them out before tying them around his waist. Entering the river upstream and with the aid of the empty bottles, he managed to cross the river on the current and then had to scale the far bank with the aid of ropes sent down by friendly forces.
When he reached India, he was immediately hospitalised. He weighed half his normal body weight and had Malaria, Dysentery and was physically and mentally scarred and exhausted. He was then evacuated back to London and spent some time in Hammersmith Hospital, where my Mother was one of the nurses who cared for him. The rest, as they say, is history.
He was, however, to suffer from recurring bouts of Malaria and nightmares from the mental scars for the rest of his life. He died in 1984 from lung cancer from heavy smoking, which was the only thing that kept him sane but was to kill him in the end.
The 1st Battalion, The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) was based in India on the outbreak of war on 3rd of September 1939. When it re-entered India on 26th of May 1942, the battalion had been reduced to 14 officers and 120 other ranks. The Cameronians lost a total of 1,222 men during World War II.
From Lieutenant General Sir William Slim KCB, CBE, DSO, MC
Commanding 14th Army:
"The retreat from Burma in 1942 was as severe an ordeal as any army could be called to endure, but the British and Indian Units of the Burma Corps, fighting and falling back and turning to fight again and again, lived up to the great traditions of their Services. Unsurpassed among them in that unquenchable spirit, which lifts men above fatigue and disaster and is the essence of a Regiment was the 1st Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles).
Battered, exhausted, hungry, reduced by casualties to a fraction of their strength, they never lost their fighting spirit or their indomitable cheerfulness. Whether they were six hundred or one hundred they were always the 1st Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles)."
(Signed) WJ Slim Lieutenant General.
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Rflmn. Laurence William Viner 1st Btn. Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) (d.28th Feb 1942) Lawrence Viner was the son of Harriett Anne (Catherine or Kit) Adcock nee Viner. He enlisted on 13th November 1935 in London with the 1st Btn. Scottish Rifles. They were sent into Burma on 12th of February 1942 following the Japanese invasion of the country. Lawrence took his own life in Burma while the balance of his mind was disturbed.
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