The following is a sketch of my father’s military service in the Far East when he was with South East Asia Command (SEAC) in India, Burma and Singapore. It is a sketch since he rarely talked about this part of his life and, as such, this information has been put together from the small amount of documentation and photographs that remain.

My father, Philip Lindsay Coggan, volunteered for the armed forces in 1944, despite being in a reserved occupation as a haulage driver at Ogilvie Colliery.

He was advised that he had a choice of either serving in the Army or in submarines. He chose the former, at my mother’s insistence.

He enlisted at Formly on 31 August 1944, and joined the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) 419 Coy Amphibeous Unit as driver. His Service Number was 14836263

He was promoted to Lance Corporal on 18 October 1945, Corporal on 26 December 1945 and Seargent on 31 January 1946

He was released from military service on 24 July 1946  from “A” COY 1 Holding BN RASC.

The last 8 months of his service was with the Phoenix Magazine in charge of the distruibution of  the SEAC newspapers to troops .This entailed a lot of flying  in DC3 Dakota aircraft, often parachuting items to troops in inaccessible locations in Burma and India. He also saw service in  Singapore.

MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW