James
Firstname
Utten
Middle Name
Todd
Surname
Date of Birth
School Years:
Date of Death:
1921 - 26
Family
Son of Rev. R. J. U. Todd of Woolverstone Rectory.
School Record
attended trinity College Cambridge
Branch of Service:
Army Burma Auxiliaries
Service Number:
Rank:
Decorations:
Service Record
Corporal
Campaign Medals
Post War Career
Having been loaned to the Burma Oil Company by his employer Royal Dutch Shell in 1940, he travelled to Sumatra and when the Japanese commenced hostilities, he became a "peterman" or one who blows things up. He was a corporal in the Burmese Auxiliaries and made explosives out of condemned gelignite to blow up oil fields. He got out of the fields just before the Japanese and walked north over the Chin Hills to Assam and India, running rifles to the Chins on the way. In his own words, "his only achievement, if it can be called such was to be given the 1941 - 43 Burma campaign medal and, of course the Burma Star - just for being a "peterman" and making a thorough mess of some other Company's oilfield"
After periods in Venezuala and the USA, he returned to the Hague and ended up as a geologist starting new ventures which, amongst others, included the possibility of a North Sea search. He retired to Suffolk in 1963
Burial Information
Additional Information
further details of his life can be found under his name in "Notes and News" in OIM No21 of 1973 at pages 73 and 74.
Other Pictures