Borneo Headhunters

[rizalbob]

Dear Apai Tuai george,

I just came back from Penang this morning. The traffic is building up on the highways. The traffic condition a few days before Christmas and the few days after will be unusually heavy. As usual, here in Malaysia we will have a national celeberation which will involve ALL Malaysians of all races and religions.

Apai Rizal.

[themonsstar]

Hi Rizalbob  or anyone

Someone on another forum would like to know if:

Does any evidence exists for Dyaks serving under British Army authority in WW1 ?

If so, were they from Borneo, Sarawak or both ?

Did they serve overseas from Borneo ?


Thank you for any help

Roy

[rizalbob]

Dear Roy,

I'm sorry. I have never heard or read about Iban's involvement in WW1. As far as i know, only a small number of Ibans were taken in by Charles Brooke to form Sarawak Rangers which he used to fight the Ibans themselves.

Rizal

[george.theshed197]

Apai Rizal,
Good to hear from you again, I have been racking my brains trying to remember what information I had been given during my time at the 6th Bn The Malay Regimant at Penchal Cheepa. As far as I can remember I agree with what you have said - that Rajah Charles Brooke only had basically a small unit he developed to quell rebellion within the Ibans themselves and following that Ceremonial duties within Sarawak itself.
If I remember rightly the first time that the Ibans became involved was around October or thereabout in 1948 when the Emergency really erupted.
Hope that you are keeping well. I had a spell in hospital again 10th February with a few seizures which has left me with  a mild form of Epilepsy but they let me home again on the Tuesday evening.
Take care,
Apai Tuia George.

[rizalbob]

Dear Apai Tuai George,

I hope you'll be alright. It is amazing that your memory is still very clear and can recall events as if they had just happened recently.

I have opened 5 Branches so far for my Sarawak Rangers Veterans Association (SRVA). I have yet to open another 6 more to enable the Association to reach down to all members throughout Sarawak.

I have changed from taking care for only Iban Trackers and Sarawak Rangers to ALL EX SERVICEMEN IN SARAWAK including the Royal Malaysian Navy and Royal Malaysian Air Force. I couldn't leave them behind. Not fair for them.

My Palm Oil plantation and Jungle Tracking and Jungle Survival Academy haven't taken off the ground yet but ground works have begun.

Take care George.

Apai Rizal.

[themonsstar]

Thank for the information Rizal & George

I will pass it on.

Roy

[george.theshed197]

Hi to ALL fomer Jungle Bunnies,
Had a wonderful telephone chat last evening to fomer 5 Platoon Commander from Kroh days - Crispin Worthington. He wishes to be remembered to everyone who served with the Battalion in those far off days of yore. He had a knee surgery done last June and is hopping around the Orkney these days like a 'good un again'.
Good to hear from him.
Regards to all,
Apai Tuai George.

[george.theshed197]

Yes. Its the old man again,
How many of you "Old Jungle Bunnies" and I use that title very loosely, have ever read any of the older books written of the days relating back to those days of early 1942 and firstly the Fall of Singapore and the ultimate fate of many of those POW's ; of places such as Changi and Kanchanaburri and events during and under the Japs ?
Recently I have been doing precisely this, including E. Spencer Chapman's " The Jungle is NeutraL" and his colleagues of the efforts they made to try to achieve contact with the MPAJA many of whom we later with other units we came to know as C.T's or Terrorists- The Bandits.!!
With a great deal of effort and much scratching of heads can any of you try to recall some of the areas that  our Bn's Companies covering the areas of Perlis; Perak; Kedah & Pahang concerning, thrashed around such as 'The Betong Salient' of the Kroh/Ayer Tasek/ Klian Intan ; The Cameron Highlands; The 'Bidor area of Tapah; Gunong Tahun etc and The Tin Taiings and the numerous others such as areas of Triang,Temorloh and Mentakab etc.??
I am trying to correlate some of the wanderings of Col. Chapman's books along with those of some of his  and some of your memories may help me to associate  with some of his references.

Your's - assistance and help would be appreciated.

Apai Tuai George.

[george.theshed197]

The silence was murder !,

I thought that at least I would have had some of the more gorier details of "Days and nights in the' Bongsu' etc" - from some of our "Teenie Boppers" of those days - however, so be it.

It would seem that no further yarns will darken the doorstep of this section - sad isn't it

Take care lads.

Apai Tuai George.

[artyhughes]

Hello George,Pleased to see you are up and about,plenty of go in the old one I note,concerning the silence in your last post,do you remember a Cpl Smith( EX Kings)who was in the MMG Pl with George Rawlinson at Kulim,Cpl Smith played the bagpipes in a fashion and drove the whole of SP Coy to distraction,patrolling was healthier than listening to the wail of the pipes,whatever happened to Cpl Smith goodness knows but his absence was heaven,Keep Well,Roy

[george.theshed197]

Good to hear from you Roy,
I most certainly do remember "Piper ?" Smith - he was on the advance party with us to Malaya, our first port of call being six weeks at the Jungle Warfare School at Khota Bharu down in Johore. I can still hear the drones from all those years ago- it's strange, just a few days ago I came across one of the old photos(in fact I think it is in on one of the pages some way back) that we managed to get off  on one of those days, including such characters that you may remember as Jimmy Elmore ( did you ever hear of his blasting off the EY Rifle FROM HIS SHOULDER ); of Simmo from A Company; Johnny Mulcahey and speak of the devil himself old Pipey  Smith - yes indeed - were did he disappear to?? He seems to have vanished into space, never heard of him from anyone or anywhere, curious indeed. I can remember just how popular he was especially  with the Ossie Instructors from the school ( ALL vets from Papua and the Kakoda Trail) All those suggestions precisely where to put the drones for the best results. Trying to remember some of the other's on that course - Johhny Heason, Captain'd by D....Moss - on our five day effort we had to take in an Airdrop and D.. volunteered me to "raise the aerial for height, get up that vine !! "unfortunatey for me I disturbed a HORNETS nest about forty feet or so up the tree and in my 'abseil down' to lower altitude I diverted hundreds of the little b******* into the rest of the patrol - don't think I was a very popular bloke that day I headed right off into the adjacent river with D....... right behind threatening me with death and judgment.
Happy ( or were they ) days.
Trust that yourself and Jean are settled in now, keep in touch.
All the best,
George and Alice.

[george.theshed197]

Had my nap and  now back for the fray,

Had a refresher from Bob's book, J.B.

 Following the air-strike  on the Sungei Kob area of the Bongsu after 7th August which started as an EXERCISE but than it hit the fan all hell let loose and when L/Cpl Fitzpatrick was killed by that burst of m.g/ fire and Cpl. 'Bully' Quinn was stitched also in both arms  and for his bravery 'Pluto' Ronnie Holt was later awarded the M.M.
If my memory serves be rightly - 'Bully' Quinn had come from the King's with the same draft as Smudger Smith.

Didn't Pluto MM and Smudger both transfer across to the Malayan Scouts a/k/a  S.A,S.?? I'm sure that is what happened.


Other things are also coming back to my memory also associated with that Patrol, however, let's  leave it at that.

Cheers.
George.

[artyhughes]

Hello George and Alice
I remember only too well the unfortunate circumstances of L/Cpl Fitzpatricks death,his draft must have had the mockers on it,Cpl Jimmy Broadbent was also of that draft he was also KIA in 1953,Pluto R Holt MM did eventually transfer to the SAS,as for Smudger Smith I cannot remember much else,one moment he was in camp on returning from ops he had disappeared into the effervescence fortunately with his pipes,Bully Quin alas after the Sungei Cob incident I do not know what happened to him.Malaya was like that,off you would go on ops for a few days and on return to base,friends had moved on and there would be new faces.Happy Days,Fondest Regards to You both,Roy and Jean

[george.theshed197]

Hi again Roy,
Yes I also remembered Jimmy Broadbent - but you were talking of Bully Quinn , immediately following my return to the battalion I ran into problems. The end result of which I was warned and immediately/advised that I was not supposed to have come back to the battalion as I had (according to The Powers that Be)  "....Completed my tour of duty and was therefore immediately flying back to the UK" and found myself back to KL and off to Changi Airbase and onward bound home on PYTHON I just did not believe it - just like that - However be that as it may.
In 1954 I was back at Ladysmith Barracks and the Sgts Mess had organised a day at Aintree and lo and behold met along with Bully Quinn and a load of the Liverpool Branch OCA - needless to say a right old chinwag and a few beers went down the hatches; as we were packing up after the races had finished another face suddenly appeared in front of me picking up rubbish -it took me a few minutes to identify, he had aged that much, and there smiling as ever was poor old Johnny Mulcahey. He had fallen on hard times when he left the army, hit the bottle  lost his wife and family etc. many of the crowd of us round had served with and under him and suddenly the hat when round - a bottle was put in his hand and several notes were shoved into his pockets and then just as suddenly the bus was moving off and we were diving for seats - that we the last I saw of Johhny.
There was something of a silence fell over the coach and through my mind ran that very old phrase - There but for the grace of God could be any one of us.
Take care,
George.

[artyhughes]

Hi George,I remember Johnny Mulcahey very well,so sad to hear about his downfall,as you say there but the grace of god could be any of us,hope you had a winner on the day and took the bookies to the cleaners,keep well,Roy