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WWI in Rangoon

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by MB (U177470) on Monday, 28th December 2009

  I have been investigating names on the local war memorials so that I can link on my website to either the CWGC online record or better the War Grave Photographic Project webpage.
  
  One name has intrigued because it has him as being in the Rangoon RDC or ROC (the inscription is not clear).
  
  I have found quite about him, he went out to Rangoon in 1910 a few years after leaving school.
  
  He died in May 1915 and was buried in Rangoon, he is said to have been in the Port Defence Volunteers.
  
  The CWGC do not have him listed as a war casualty, they don't seem to have any in Burma during WWI as far as I can see.
  
  I have not been able to find out much about Burma in WWI, though I believe there was some unrest and attacks on Europeans.
  
  I wonder if anyone knows any more about the area?
  
  MB

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by wollemi (U2318584) on Monday, 28th December 2009

  Burma in WW1 was part of British India
  
  Its significance was as part of a plot by Indian nationalists - with German assistance - to overthrow British rule in India while the British Indian Army was preoccupied in Europe and India was poorly defended. I think the concept was to provoke a rebellion in Burma first and then spread the rebellion into India
  
  It's a complex story of Indian nationalism which begins prewar, escalates after WW1 broke out, and involves the German Embassy in (neutral) US arranging arms, a 'Siam-Burma Plan', German agents in SE Asia etc
  
  My guess is that the man you note, as an expat living there prewar, might have been useful in gathering information about suspicious activities and people trying to foment unrest etc. Just a guess. Why he died is unclear.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by LongWeekend (U3023428) on Tuesday, 29th December 2009

  MB
  
  Most British colonies had local volunteer units, which were supposed to augment the local garrison in an emergency. In the context of WWI, the emergency might be a raid by a landing party from a German ship, but in fact most Volunteer units had been set up with native uprisings or mutinies by elements of the garrison in mind.
  
  The volunteers at Singapore did function in this way when the Indian 3rd Infantry mutinied in February 1915.
  
  Wollemi is right, there was a nationalist plot, known as the Christmas Day plot, for simulatneous risings in India and Burma on Christmas Day 1915. Burma was useful to the plotters as a route for smuggling arms from China through Siam. The plot was thoroughly penetrated, the Siamese authorities persuaded to disperse the camps and dumps on the Burmese frontier in the summer and 300 suspects arrested in mid-December. There was no military action in Burma, but contingency planning would have included the Volunteers.
  
  If your man is not listed by the CWGC then it would seem likely that he did not die on active service, but his family may have asked for him to be included on the memorial.
  
  Do you have any information on how he died?
  
  LW

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by MB (U177470) on Tuesday, 29th December 2009

  I have no information at all on how he died, I was hoping someone might appear with a source on Burma!
  
  Normally I think the requirement to be included in the CWGC Debt of Honour is to die whilst in the armed services during various specified dates. Many died of disease and are included so I don't think they were required to be on active service.
  
  I came across elsewhere references to people killed in Burma in WWI but if you search on the CWGC they have no WWI war graves listed there.
  
  MB

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