A Son of Scotland, A Soldier of Empire 🏴 🇬🇧
John “Gunner” Thomas Thomson of Lanark, was born on 20th January 1920 and passed in 85. He embodied the grit and spirit of a generation of Scots who answered the call – not for medals, but because it was right. Enlisting with the Royal Artillery at just 17, was soon embedded with the famed 8th (Frontier Force) Battalion, The Burma Rifles – an elite fighting force revered by allies and feared by enemies.
Alongside Gurkha brigades, Gunner served in the unforgiving jungles of Malaya and Burma, enduring some of the most brutal combat of the war. His unit provided artillery support in battles that were pivotal but often overlooked – the silent front lines where the war’s outcome was shaped not in headlines, but in hardship.
Burma – The Forgotten Front 🇲🇲
Many Lanarkshire men found themselves shipped to India, then pushed into the dense, disease-ridden terrain of Burma. There, they faced:
- Relentless monsoons, jungle sickness, leeches, and snakes
- Grinding warfare in the Battles of Imphal and Kohima
- Exhaustion, starvation, and overwhelming odds
This was no ceremonial theatre. These were the blood-and-mud battles where victory came at a price few could comprehend – and fewer still honoured.
Burma (now Myanmar) 1942: Royal Artillery WWII
“From Lanark’s hills to Burma’s jungles, loyal to country 🏴 🇬🇧 – devoted to faith” ✝️
Chindit Service – Burma 🇲🇲
For the final 18 months of the war, Gunner served with the Chindits – Britain’s Long Range Penetration Force. Operating far behind Japanese lines, the Chindits were specialists in sabotage, ambush, and disruption. The mission was high risk, low support – everything from food to ammunition had to be carried or dropped by air.
Gunner, already seasoned from his time with the Gurkhas, was thrown into this feral campaign of endurance and attrition. Action around Kohima placed him at one of the Pacific War’s key turning points. Conditions were horrific – but the Chindits became legend for their stubborn refusal to break.
Conditions were nightmarish; torrential rains, thick jungle, leeches, malaria, snakes, and a ruthless enemy. But the Chindits – many Scots among them – became legends for their grit, ingenuity, and sheer endurance.
Burma Campaign -1942: WWII
<<<< Read Full Report: Identifying the House on the Hill >>>>
John ‘Gunner’ Thomson’s Service Medals
Medals & Record of Honour
John “Gunner” Thomson earned the following service medals:
🎖️ Burma Star
Awarded for service in direct combat zones in Southeast Asia, 1941-45.
🎖️ Defence Medal
For extended service under active threat, both overseas and domestically.
🎖️ War Medal 1939–1945
Given to all personnel who served a minimum of 28 days during the conflict. These medals, simple in form, mark a service that was anything but.
Return from Rangoon (Yangon)
At war’s end, Gunner Thomson sailed home aboard the SS Indrapoera departing from Rangoon back to Southampton. As the ship pulled away, he played the bugle from the stern – a tribute to the fallen, and a note of hope for the living. For many, that sound was the only farewell they’d get – a final tribute to fallen comrades and a signal of return, for those who survived.
SS Indrapoera: Image courtsey of, Joel DE Jesus.
🇬🇧 🇬🇧 🇬🇧
Boxin’ for Smokin’ – A True Gunner Story
Grandad Gunner (John Thomson) Burma 1942: Royal Artillery – WWII
John ‘Gunner’ Thomson, had little time for polished ranks or men who wore medals without mud. One day, a pair of upper-class officers – all starch and smokes – tried to humiliate him and his men, by ordering them to dig another trench as the one partially dug, needed moved. While they stood smokin an watchin! Gunner, never shy of speaking up for his men, and for the truth, offered up, “a better plan”… he said;
“Here…I’ve got a better plan, you two get in the fuckin’ hole an dig it, and I’ll stand an have a smoke. And if you don’t like it, I’ll knock the fuck oot the pair o ye.”
Then, true to form, he yanked one of them into the trench and started boxing. The result? A court-martial. The legacy? A man who stood for fairness, hated bullshit, and never took orders from men who hadn’t earned the right to give them – alongside a packet of smokes from the boys!
(There’s also a story about a monkey 🙊 who once stole his beloved fags. That story, should stay there though…!)
A Nation Forged in Fire 🇬🇧
WWII: in the Trenches – Pro Patria 🇬🇧
Scotland is a land of breathtaking beauty forged by lochs and glens, by wind and stone – and by blood. The freedoms we enjoy today, were not forged in the debating deceit of what Westminster is now – or behind the greed and robbery of Holyrood. They were formed long ago, in the jungles of Burma and in the face of the two great wars. By brave men like Grandad Gunner, who embodied true courage – bravery, boldness, and unbreakable spirit.
When we speak of being Scottish, we speak of more than heritage. We speak of loyalty to country, devotion to faith, and duty in the face of darkness.
That spirit lives on in the hills of Lanarkshire, the valleys and shores of Ayrshire, throughout Annandale, Eskdale, Dumfries and Galloway and through the mountains of the Highlands – and in the memorials of those who gave all.
And in the quiet dignity of those who came home – and never spoke of what they’d seen – but, lived with it forever.
Today, we live in the shadow of that legacy – there is no Churchill, our great Queen is gone… What was won through sacrifice, is now given away in silence. Our lands, culture and heritage surrendered, by hands that never bled for it.
“Winston Churchill’s Speech “Be Ye Men of Valor“ ☝️☝️
Legacy
John “Gunner” Thomson returned from war not in search of honours, but having earned a legacy – like so many who gave their tomorrow, so we could have our today. His story is one among many, yet distinctly Scottish – forged in hardship, marked by duty, and carried with a unshakable grit and determination, that must never be forgotten.
Today, my Grandad’s medals remain a testament, to his ‘never give up‘ and ‘things could always be worse‘ attitude. His life – from farming turned artilleryman – reflects the soul of a nation and a country that has always stood tall, even when outnumbered, outgunned, and far from home.
A Rare Family Timeline
Generational Legacy: A Living Bridge to Wartime Scotland
Because two generations in my family had children later in life, the usual family timeline
was stretched dramatically. The result is a rare direct link between a modern Scottish
granddaughter and a grandfather born into the world of the early 1920s. Let me explain.
1920: John “Gunner” Thomson is born
Born into an era of hardship, duty and old-world Scottish values, Grandad Gunner would go on to serve in two World Wars, and carry the character of a generation shaped by sacrifice.
Late 1940s: The next generation arrives later than average (My Father & Aunt)
Unlike the shorter generation gaps seen in most families, my family line continued on
a longer timeline, extending the living reach of one generation – and the next.
Mid 1980’s: Elizabeth Thomson is born
Instead of this wartime generation sitting at great-grandparent distance, the connection
remains direct – granddaughter to grandfather – preserving a stronger personal, historical
and genetic bond.
- 64 Years: Between grandfather and granddaughter.
- 25% of DNA: Approximate shared DNA with a grandparent.
- Extremley Rare Bridge: A direct granddaughter of the WWII generation = ONE single-generation bridge.
- Less than 1%: of families have this extremley rare generational pattern, combining a 64 year grandparent gap with a birth to a mother aged 46.
The result is a 64-year span between grandfather and granddaughter – this size of gap normally covers two, often three generations.
For most people born in the 1980s, the Second World War generation is three generations removed. In my life, that history sat only one generation away. That makes this not only unusual in genealogical terms, but also extremley rare: this makes me, a direct ONE single-generation bridge to that era, with my grandfather born over 100 years ago.
This type of family history reflects what genealogists call “long generations.” Instead of the typical 25–30 year generational step, two successive late-in-life births extended the timeline dramatically.
Perhaps… Legacy was never meant to live in soil or stone, but in the souls of those who carry the blood of those who came before. Stewardship of land may pass from hand to hand, but the spirit of a lineage cannot be sold, traded, or erased.
Human beings are temporary, but the human spirit moves across generations – from survival on the land to exploration of the stars.
Updated: 08/03/2026
