STORY OF RESCUE BY ELEPHANT UNCOVERED IN GREEN HOWARDS GIFT
30th June 2008

Captain (later Colonel) John Reginald "Reg" Wilson

Papers and objects associated with a remarkable but little-known episode of World War II that included the rescue of refugees with the help of elephants have been presented to the Green Howards Regimental Museum in Richmond. The records of John Reginald "Reg" Wilson from Scarborough, who spent most of his career as a tea planter in Assam, have been given to the Museum by his nephew Brian Wilson, who lives in Cornwall. During the War John Reginald "Reg" Wilson served in the 5th (Scarborough) Battalion The Green Howards. In the summer of 1942 he took part in operations to assist a group of British people who were fleeing from the Japanese invasion of Burma. The refugees had chosen to attempt the most dangerous of the routes between Burma and India, the 8000-foot Chaukan Pass. The journey was fraught with danger, and by the middle of June a group had become stranded by rising floodwaters on an island in the middle of the dangerous Dapha River. Captain Wilson was sent to join another Assam tea planter, Squadron Leader Gyles Mackrell, who was already attempting to organise a rescue by elephant, the only way of crossing the river in spate. Wilson, with 60 men, joined Mackrell and his elephants on 17 June. Mackrell was ill with malaria at this time, and Wilson supplied him with aspirin and quinine. Nevertheless, on 21 June, Wilson and Mackrell managed to organise the elephant convoy to cross to the island and rescue eight of the trapped men on that day. Until 17 July he was at Mackrells's side, assisting with organisation and making repeated crossings of the river to rescue and supply others making the dangerous crossing. After his dramatic time on the Burmese border, Wilson continued to work for the Army, working as a V-Force intelligence colonel with the 14th Army and earning commendations from General Stillwell, the American Chief of Staff in India, from Field Marshal Hartley, British Commander-in-Chief-in India and from General Cheng, the Army Commander of the Chinese Army in India - all of which have been given to the Green Howards Museum. Also in the collection is a more personal memento - a silver cigarette case engraved with the signatures of the eight men he rescued in June 1943, with the inscription 'To Captain J R Wilson with gratitude for having saved our lives Dapha River 21st June 1942'. After the War John Reginald "Reg" Wilson continued his career in India, becoming Secretary and Deputy Chairman of the Assam Tea-Growers organisation. He was awarded the OBE (also now in the Green Howards Museum) for his work in India, and he retired to Scarborough in 1959. David Tetlow, Curator of the Green Howards Museum, says, 'The story of John Reginald "Reg" Wilson's war was unknown to us until his nephew presented this remarkable collection of artefacts to the Museum. We are really grateful to have learned about this remarkable man, who was a Green Howards officer and a very respected and highly-inspirational resident in Assam for many years.'

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