war

PC 500 Half a Century!

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Back in 2014 I never ever dreamt that, twelve years later, I would write ‘PC 500 Half a Century!’ Yet here we are, having scribbled about this and that, finding the weekly 1000-word challenge part of the routine of my life. Where did twelve years go and what happened during that time? (I have added some of my photographs from our travels; their position is not connected to the script!)

Eagle on the Yukon River, Alaska 2015

          There are global events that I have no control over, but their significance often affects the decisions of our government and therefore eventually my life. Living in western Europe gives me a view on world events that I wouldn’t necessarily have if I lived, for instance, in Brazil or in New Zealand. I am not saying there’s a bias, but a European war is more concerning for this continent than for South America.

          These twelve years started with Russia’s modern annexation of The Crimea. In England we remember The Crimea as the land fought over between 1853-1856, one of Victoria’s Wars. Then it was Russia against an alliance of The Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Sardinia (!); it ended with Russia’s defeat. Who hasn’t heard Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘The Charge of The Light Brigade’, describing 670 cavalry men’s charge against some Russian guns? Only 195 men remained mounted and survived unharmed.

          In 2014 Russia annexed The Crimea, siting all sorts of historic reasons why its people wanted to be part of Russia; Europe took no action. Eight years later an emboldened Russia invaded Ukraine and that war continues. Whatever its outcome, its use of drone technology is changing the way conflicts are conducted.

The Salt Lake, the Atacama Desert, Chile 2023

           In 2021, after twenty years in Afghanistan trying to bring peace and stability, the United States and its Nato Allies withdrew, having failed. The departure was quite chaotic, reminiscent of the American pull out of its unsuccessful war in Vietnam. So much blood spilt, only to see Afghanistan regress to the C7th ideas of the Taliban. Not having learned its lesson, America embarked on yet another war, this one with Iran, in February this year; most commentators suggest this was ill-thought through and the likely outcome of any peace settlement disappointing. The European focus on the Ukrainian and Iranian conflicts masks news of the other disastrous conflict in Africa, that of the civil war in Sudan.

For two years after the start of my PCs, Africa suffered its first Ebola Epidemic. The second is happening now! And who can forget the global pandemic of Covid 19 that lasted from 2020 for three years. In the UK there were over 25 million cases which resulted in 232,000 deaths. The worst day was on 19th January 2021 when 1490 individuals died. Globally it’s estimated that some 18-35 million people died. No rhyme or reason why someone who caught the virus died – age and health no determinator, but there was a suggestion that some ethnic groups were more susceptible than others.

The island of Vis, Croatia 2024

Two other global changes mark these twelve years. Firstly since 2023 there has been an exponential rise in the integration of Artificial Information technologies in virtually every aspect of life, transforming global industries, labour markets and technology policy. This is comparable with the introduction of the mobile telephone or the shift to digital technology or the introduction of television.

Secondly, the election of Donald Trump to President of the USA in 2024 has been marked by geopolitical shifts in diplomacy, in alliances, in international trade and in the political landscape. Whether you like him or not, his erratic policies and mood swings have created greater uncertainty and instability.

Here in the United Kingdom the 2016 referendum on our European Union membership resulted in 52% of the population voting to leave. The consequences of that fateful decision reverberate in every aspect of our lives today. The Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, and five other politicians have since tried to lead the country, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, the latter replaced as I write by Andy Burnham. Eight in 12 years! Another referendum in Scotland, in 2014, put the case for independence on hold! But in the same year same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales; Brighton celebrated!

Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand 2025

The circle of life continues. In 2016 ‘births’, my third grandson Theo was born in December, ‘marriages’, ours in August and ‘deaths’, that of Celina’s father Carlos in the January. In the following year my nephew Hugh’s first child Dougie was born, on 17th February, the same day as Celina’s brother’s second son Joaquim. I miss Bill Pender and Ray Morrell, both good friends for decades, who are no longer here. And as a nation we said goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II.

As we age it’s inevitable our bodies react to internal and external factors but trying to live an active life and eating well helps. For instance, last year I completed 4000 hot yoga classes since I started in 2009, despite having to have a prolapsed disc operated on in 2017!

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2012 – to date

Celina and I have travelled, and not only to Brazil on our annual visits to her home city Rio de Janeiro! In 2015 we went west, up into Alaska, following in the footsteps of great grandfather George Nation. At the end of 2019 we were on the north coast of South Island, New Zealand, on Farewell Spit, the sandbar on which the Queen Bee, a barque from England, sank. Amongst the passengers was Eve Fosbery, aged 17, who would become my great grandmother. We then went out into the Marlborough Sounds, to Frenchman’s Pass, where the survivors came ashore two days later. We’ve had two other trips to New Zealand and Australia, loved Singapore, and spent a few days in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Celina’s brother and family moved to Estoril in Portugal in 2016, giving us opportunities to visit on an annual basis.

But in twelve years I have failed miserably to get to grips with the Portuguese language.

The Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon, Portugal. 2016 to date

My postcards continue …….. PC 501 in draft!

Richard 17th July 2026

Hove

http://www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

PC 493 Force 136 (1)

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In my postcard ‘Five days in May’ (PC 484 March 2026) about my time as Battery Commander of 43 Air Defence Battery (Lloyd’s Company) Royal Artillery, I mentioned that my stepfather, Philip Thomson-Walker, had spent just over two months of 1945 in the Malayan jungle as part of Force 136. As I scribbled the note (Note 1), I thought it could become a stand-alone postcard, about Force 136. So here it is; actually, the first of two!

My divorced mother met Philip skiing in St Moritz in 1954 and one weekend he came to stay in the old servants’ quarters where we lived, on the top floor of No 15 Royal Crescent in Bath. As an eight-year-old I remember his pyjamas were made from an old camouflage silk parachute. They married and moved to Balcombe, some twenty miles north of Brighton, in 1955.

Like many of his generation he didn’t talk about the recent World War and his part in it, although the occasional nightmare and his bad back, injured in some hard parachute landing, were no doubt personal reminders, but somehow I knew he’d been part of Force 136, whatever that was! He died in 1993 aged 81. In 2002, some months before my mother died, I wrote to the SOE (Special Operations Executive (note 2)) Advisor in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, at that time in the Old Admiralty Building on Whitehall. My enquiry was extremely timely, as nine days afterwards the office was officially closed, but Duncan Stuart (an SOE Advisor) came up with most of the information I needed to fill in the enormous blanks in my knowledge of ‘Uncle’ Philip’s wartime experiences.

He graduated from Clare College, Cambridge with a MA in Mechanical Sciences in 1934. On 2nd September 1939, the day before war was declared, he was granted an emergency commission in the Royal Engineers. Three years later he was posted to the Special Operations Executive where he used his technical knowledge to enhance SOE’s equipment and operational capability. In September 1944 he joined Force 133 which had responsibilities for operations in The Balkans. The Military Mission to Jugoslavia (sic) was set up to support the partisans led by Josip Tito, who would become President of Yugoslavia.

Second Lieutenant Royal Engineers September 1939 (aged 29)

Based on the island of Vis, opposite Split on the now Croatian coast, Tito’s partisans were assisted by the author Sir Fitzroy Maclean (See PC 391 Tales of Croatia June 2024). The latter was allowed to purchase a house in Korčula, not normally allowed for a foreigner.

In February 1945 Philip attended a JEDBURGH course in Market Harborough. JEDBURGHs were originally 3-man parachute teams first used for post-D-Day operations, to liaise with and to reinforce resistance groups in France. The three men were of British, French and American nationalities, one the leader, another the deputy and the third the radio operator. By now an acting Major, Philip was posted (see photograph) to Malaya as Patrol Leading Officer in Force 136.

Malaya had been overrun in December 1941 by the Japanese Army, which also took Singapore the following February. Before Philip joined, a Force 136 officer, Captain Freddie Spencer Chapman, had succeeded in carrying out offensive operations against the occupying Japanese for over three years, with the aid of fighters from the Chinese Communist guerillas. For more than a year and a half, he and two other members of Force 136, John Davis and Richard Broome, had lived in jungle camps with Chinese Communist guerrillas, traveling long distances through dense and difficult jungle, while often suffering high fevers caused by malaria, beri-beri, black-water fever, tick typhus and pneumonia. Somehow, they had survived. In his book ‘The Jungle is Neutral’ (1950) Chapman attributed his survival to the ‘basic rule that the jungle is neutral, that one should view the surroundings as neither good nor bad’.

A photograph of Freddie Chapman from Philip’s album

Although the top command of Force 136 were British officers and civilians, most of those it trained and employed as agents were indigenous to the regions in which they operated. Burmese, Indians and Chinese were trained as agents for missions in Burma, for example. British and other European officers and NCOs went behind the lines to train resistance movements. Former colonial officials and men who had worked in these countries for various companies knew the local languages, the peoples and the land and so became invaluable to SOE.

Philip’s black & white photograph of the ‘green hell of Malaya’. It was into this inhospitable landscape that Philip parachuted on 10th July 1945.

A year after the end of the war, Philip was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE). His citation gives an indication of what he did in Malaya:

“Major Thomson-Walker dropped into Selangor on 10th July 1945 to take command of a patrol established by Flight Lieutenant Robertson. His organisation and planned dispositions for offensive action were exemplary, and his ability and attention to detail under the rough and ready conditions of jungle life were exceptional. In covering the main North-South railway from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh, he provided much pre-surrender intelligence on enemy troop movements, the value of which was enhanced by the fact that it was received from an area directly inland from the invasion beaches. As an organiser in Selangor, Major Thomson-Walker was outstanding amongst the Force 136 Liaison Officers, and the quality of his work is reflected in the praise accorded to his patrol on the occasion of an inspection in Klang on 11 September 1945 by the Supreme Allied Commander.”

Philip’s photograph album is full of grainy black & white photographs from his time in Force 136. First up, an indication that he didn’t land where he should have done.

To be continued …….

Richard 29th May 2026

Hove

www.postcardscribbles.co.uk

Note 1 On a trip to Belize I spent one night in the jungle: “Night comes early, and it was noisy, wet, extremely humid and hot.”

Note 2 The Special Operations Executive was raised in July 1940 on the orders of the Prime Minister Winston Churchill; its sole aim was to “set Europe ablaze”. It operated behind enemy lines to conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance, while aiding local resistance movements against Axis powers. 

Often referred to as Churchill’s “underground army,” the SOE’s unconventional warfare tactics and operatives profoundly impacted the war through a variety of dangerous, covert operations.