- Contributed by听
- West Sussex Library Service
- People in story:听
- John Bennison, Agnes Bennison
- Location of story:听
- Irriwaddy, India
- Background to story:听
- Civilian
- Article ID:听
- A3453716
- Contributed on:听
- 29 December 2004
My parents were in Burma at the start of the war, having sent me back to England in 1937 at the age of 5. I stayed in Yorkshire with my grandmother.
My father had passed the Indian Civil Service exams and by the outbreak of the war he was the Commissioner of the Irriwaddy Division. The Japanese invaded in 1941/2 and civilians started to move north away from the invading army. Many died on the walk.
My father requisitioned boats in the Irriwaddy Flotilla and sent my mother south (towards the Japanese!) down the delta to the coast and round to up to Akyab and from there up to Calcutta.
My father followed the same route later as the last to leave. Together my parents travelled from Calcutta up to Simla and then across to Durban, Cape Town and back to England in the spring of 1943. I had not seen my parents for 6 years.
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