75 Years Ago in Rangoon

 

Today is the 75^th anniversary of VJ (Victory in Japan) Day. I heard some veterans, including one from Ghana drafted at age 18 to defend the Empire, interviewed on the radio and cast my mind back to my father-in-law, Ron Waddams, who was in Rangoon that day, aged 25.

 

 

Ron Waddams, Self-portrait, oil on canvas, 1943-1946?

 

Ron was a member of the 61 Indian Reproduction Group I. E., a unit composed of artists, designers and printers formed to print maps for the commanders of the 14^th Army as they planned to Burma Campaign. They left Greenock, Scotland, on 23 February 1943 aboard an ancient merchant ship, to sail in convoy via Dakar and Freetown, with a brief stop in Cape Town, to Durban. A hot, sweaty, smelly journey, perfumed by boiled cabbage, sleeping in hammocks or on tables. Two months later they boarded a re-purposed P&O cruise liner (more cabbage, no luxuries) bound for Bombay, where they arrived in June 1943.

 

 

Ron Waddams, The Mess Deck, watercolour on paper, 1943. This was painted in late February or early March 1943 

 

The 61 Group spent the next two years travelling round India and finally into Burma with all the equipment needed to run a mobile print shop. Their first stop was Dehra Dun in the foothills of the Himalayas. From there they headed south to Bangalore, taking time to visit the Taj Mahal en route. Then they headed northeast, via Madras and Calcutta to Comilla (now Bangladesh). The next stop, Imphal, was their last in India. On 28 April 1944 they entered Burma, travelling for a month by road and river barge.

 

 

Ron Waddams, View from Mussoorie N. India, watercolour on paper, 1943 or 1944. Mussoorie is a Himalayan hill station, 35km. from Dehra Dun

   

A description of the unit at work in a 1944 Christmas programme tells us that the 61 group included Jack Charlesworth, a photographer, whose tenor voice could be heard singing oratorios; ‘Honest’ Ron Armstrong, a draughtsman who longed for the glamour of a dance hall; among the platemakers were Maurice Eyers, who played his flute into the small hours, and Bob Howkins, a long-suffering supporter of Stockport FC; the presses were managed by Bob Tavernor, a veteran lithographer, and kept running by Andy Howe’s expertise with his hammer, wire and pliers; and the stores were run by Ted Carliget, who reclined “like some prosperous ironmonger behind his healthy walrus.” The group commander was Capt. “Eddie” L. Baker, whose avuncular face smiles out from the Foreword.

 

 

Ron Waddams, Early Evening View from the Back of his Tent, watercolour on paper, 1944. The camp was at Thondebavi, near Bangalore

 

When the group gathered in Rangoon in 1945 for a photo it numbered some 50 men, British and Indian, including four Sikhs. Such units typically employed British soldiers for the pre-press, and printing work. Indian soldiers, from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, provided administration, security, transport and catering.

 

 

 Ron Waddams, Indian Sepoy, pencil on paper, 1945 or 1946. Probably drawn in Rangoon

 

The three-year journey of the 61 Group had moments of comfort, such as Christmas 1944, marked in Comilla with a souvenir programme designed by Ron. Christmas Eve was celebrated with a darts competition, “traditional Housey-housey” and a buffet, washed down with “spirits and a wholesome brew”. Christmas day began with breakfast at 9am, followed by six a side football. Dinner at 1:30 consisted of roast duck, roast potatoes, peas and carrots, and savoury stuffing, followed by Christmas pudding, cheese, bread rolls and mince pies. Pilsner beer, lime cordial, whisky, brandy, rum and gin quenched thirsts. Cricket was played at 3:30, followed by high tea at 5:00. The evening’s fun began at 6:00: a quiz contest, a musical contest, sticking the tail on a donkey, and “several dramatic sketches by well known artistes”. The troops were asked “to cause the civilians in the village as little annoyance as possible.” 

 

 

 Ron Waddams, Christmas Card, 1945

 

However, military accommodation in a tropical climate, long arduous journeys with heavy equipment, and demanding work in very difficult circumstances required enormous resilience. Many months were spent living in tents. In Comilla they lived in a “basha”, a hut whose thatched roof was home to rats who loved to gnaw on clothing unless it was taken to bed inside each man’s mosquito net. The rats soon took to gnawing on the mosquito nets. Catching and killing a rat in bed was an essential skill. In Burma tropical rain made the road impassable. They slept in their trucks and breakfasted on tea and biscuits. One night on the river in Burma an emotionally-disturbed Indian sepoy shot dead two Indian soldiers.

 

 

 Ron Waddams, View of His Tent, watercolour on paper, 1945. Painted at Imphal (now Bangladesh)

 

The Group returned to the UK in 1946. Release papers dated 19/06/1946 of Sergeant Waddams, Ronald Herbert, gave him the following testimonial:

 

A careful and efficient litho-draughtsman and photo-writer who has a sound knowledge of his job. A studious type, who, though somewhat retiring is capable of carrying responsibility with efficiency and decision.

 

 

 Ron Waddams, Shwedago Pagoda From Lim Chin Tsong's Palace, watercolour on paper, Rangoon, 1945. The Shwedagon Pagoda is also known as the Great Dagon Pagoda or the Golden Pagoda. Tradition holds that it was built 2,600 years ago. It may be the oldest Buddhist pagoda in existence. Lim Chin Tsong was a wealthy Chinese merchant who built a palace in a mixture of Eastern and Western styles between 1915-1918

 

Many years later, Ron would recall his experiences in India and Burma as formative. He emerged from war a pacifist, internationalist, socialist, determined to speak out against the wrongs he had witnessed. He wrote some four decades later: “I lived through World War 2, when there was more barbarity on a massive scale man against man. While serving with the British army in India and Burma, I saw poverty and hunger”. Nevertheless, war never dimmed his optimism. He had written a poem in Bangalore in 1944:

 

            Wars a thousand more will bring strife

            Till perfection’s blissful days come;

            Never man lose faith in your life,

            Your’s the noble birth, your’s the sum.

 

Ron was a meticulous man. He recorded his experiences in writing, on camera, drawings, and in watercolours sent home to his family. My next writing project will be a book about the 61 Group and, I hope, an exhibition of Ron’s watercolours, drawings, photos and memorabilia.

 

J Jenkins, Caricature of Ron Waddams, black pencil and watercolour on paper, 1945 or 1946? The artist may be the member of the 61 Group referred to in the Christmas 1944 programme as "Old Jenky"