Family History

The joy of having time off between Christmas and New Year, has allowed me to get into doing some family history, this time on my paternal side.

Our family has a history of working, living and fighting in Burma between the 2 world wars. Both my dad and my aunt were born in Burma and spent much of their childhood there before coming back to the UK, as the spectre of the Second World War loomed. 

My great grandfather fought and died in the Battle of Mandalay in 1942 (buried in a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Myanmar).

My blip today is about my grandfather who was an engineer working for the Burmah Oil Company, and was involved in the operations to blow up the oil wells in 1942 as they retreated from Burma as the Japanese invaded. 

Thinking about this, makes me realise how brave the some people are. I wish I had had the opportunity to meet them in person.

A thoughtful day for sure