MAJOR JOHN R. HUDSON M.B.E.
ROYAL BOMBAY SAPPERS AND MINERS
1920 to 11th June 2005

John Rosson HUDSON was born in 1920 in Perranuthnoe village in Cornwall.  He was educated at Laxton Oundle School and later at Queen's College Taunton.  Being just the right age to serve throughout the war he did two years ranks service in the Royal Engineers in the UK before being commissioned and seconded to the royal Bombay Sappers & Miners in the Indian army.

He commanded a platoon of Sikhs through Burma, Malaya and Java and rose to Major commanding the 91st Royal Bombay Field Company.  He was mentioned in despatches twice and in Java he was awarded the MBE (Military).

He was cut off by the Japanese in the Siege of Imphal from March to August 1944.  He landed before dawn in Malaya on the reoccupation (Code Name Zipper) and then was sent to Semarang in Central Java, where he was again surrounded by insurgent Indonesian forces in 1946.  In this post-war conflict they re-armed their Japanese prisoners and fought shoulder to shoulder with them against the overwhelming numbers of hostile Indonesians.

After demobilisation he obtained a BSc (Engineering) and worked as a Civil Engineer, ending his career as a director of a major contracting firm until taking early retirement at the age of 55 and moving to Cornwall.  He was an auxiliary watch keeper with Lands End Coastguard until his retirement.  He married Peggy Vellenoweth of Perranuthnow in 1949 and leaves four children and nine grandchildren.  His book, "Sunset in the East" was published in 2002.  To read more about the book, please Click Here