Friend of KET and webinar guest speaker Christopher Jary has very kindly shared his VJ Day speech which he gave in Dorchester on 15th August 2025:
DORSET COUNCIL VJ-DAY 80TH ANNIVERSARY SERVICE
Never in my lifetime has remembrance of the tragic, cruel reality of war been more important. Where better for the people of Dorset to remember than at the Kohima Stone? It’s ten years since my friend John Travell ensured that in our County Town we remember one of the finest achievements of our wonderful County Regiment. John – now 95 – has joined us for this service celebrating what 80 years ago today Churchill called this crowning deliverance from the long and anxious years of danger and carnage.
At the heart of our national remembrance is the Cenotaph. Walking to it up Whitehall you’ll pass MOD. Outside stand three bronze statues chosen as our three foremost generals in the Second World War. Whoever chose them got it right.
On the right in his beret stands Monty – who won the campaign in North Africa and then planned, prepared and finally commanded the Allied landings in Normandy. Worth mentioning here that he had 3 battalions of Dorsets under his command!
In the middle is Alanbrooke, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He looks a bit worried – and well he might. His exhausting task was to advise and harness the immense restless energy of Winston Churchill. And to help him steer the Allies to make sensible war-winning decisions.
On the left in jungle hat is Slim – Uncle Bill – the man who won the war in Assam and Burma. He had half a million troops of many nationalities under his command. He had two divisions of West Africans. And we must never forget that most of his soldiers were from the Indian Army – Sikhs, Jats, Gurkhas, Baluchis, Punjabis. Slim’s victory in Burma – fought against a terrible enemy in dense jungle and towering mountains under appalling conditions – was largely theirs. We owe them a colossal debt for their loyalty and courage. And that’s why it’s a joy for us to welcome today Captain Nirmal Rai and Section Sergeant-Major Kumar Thapa from the Queen’s Gurkha Signals.
Among Slim’s many British troops was the 2nd Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment. When the war ended, a British infantry Brigade was sent to occupy Tokyo. It was decided it should include one Scottish battalion, one Welsh and one English. Slim stipulated that the English battalion should be the 2nd Dorsets. It was a huge honour, and I’ll explain – briefly – why Uncle Bill chose the Dorsets above all the others.
The Burma campaign began with the Japanese invasion in January 1942. In 11 weeks they chased our forces 1,000 miles north the length of the country and back across the Chindwin River into Assam.
Among them were the 7th Hussars and their Padre, Neville Metcalfe, won a DSO for his brave, selfless devotion to his flock during that terrible retreat. Neville’s son, Peter, is with us today.
On 15th February the Japanese took Singapore and – with the Norfolk Territorials captured there – was Corporal Thomas Nunn RAOC. He would survive 3½ years’ brutal captivity in Thailand until freed on 2nd September 1945. Gerry, his son, has joined us this morning.
In March 1944 – the Japanese launched an offensive across the Chindwin into Assam – in India. No one knew what they were planning but General Slim knew his enemy. He knew that they hadn’t planned it properly and – to feed their troops – were counting on capturing the British base at Imphal. His plan was to prevent them getting our supplies and then to defeat them and chase them back. He defended Imphal fiercely and rushed troops up from India to defend Kohima Ridge. The 2nd Dorsets were among those troops.
For 18 days from 26th April the Dorsets held a key position high on Garrison Hill, keeping the Japanese at bay and trying to drive them away. This ghastly battle was fought – incongruously – in the ruined grounds of a diplomat’s bungalow with terraced gardens and a tennis court.
On the first night A Coy by-passed the Japanese in the bungalow and seized a position behind them. On the way they suffered some casualties. Among them was 19-year-old Cyril Bird from N Devon, who was killed. Cyril’s nephew, Jerry, is here today.
The Dorsets hung onto the position despite Japanese attacks and shelling. On 1st May they lost the excellent Company Sergeant-Major – Herbert Downton from Dorchester – who was killed by a shell. His son Brian Downton and his family are here this morning.
After ten gruelling days fighting on Garrison Hill the Dorsets were due to be relieved. But they asked to stay on and finish the job they’d started. Finally, after 18 days holding this position, a Grant tank was winched up the steep hill. Supported by D Company of the Dorsets, the tank knocked out all the Japanese positions. Suddenly the Dorsets saw their enemy running away. They’d captured Garrison Hill. The commander of the tank was Sergeant Gerry Waterhouse – a Yorkshireman. And his daughters – Janet and Pat – are here today.
And so too are Jenny and Ben Jeapes – the daughter and grandson of Lt-Col Geoffrey White, who commanded the 2nd Dorsets through most of the campaign and won the DSO for his inspiring leadership. Who better than Jenny and Ben to lay a wreath remembering Knocker White’s beloved Dorsets?
And with Jenny today is her cousin, Kate Dillnott-Cooper, whose uncle – Major Mervyn Mansel – died a few hundred yards away on another part of Kohima Ridge on the day the Dorsets took Garrison Hill. Although from a Dorset family, 28-year-old Mervyn was an officer in the Queen’s Royal West Surreys.
CSM Gary Cooper – who had played a heroic part in a rearguard action before Dunkirk – was wounded a month after Kohima but happily survived to become the Battalion’s Regimental Sergeant-Major. His son, Gary, is here too.
The Dorsets’ heroic doctor, Joe Chamberlin, had a painful memory of the day CSM Cooper was wounded. Pinned down by heavy mortaring in deep jungle, the Dorsets were unable to move. These are Joe Chamberlin’s words:
Someone who had been hit – invisible in the dense scrub and trees – was crying for help. The cries went on for so very long and we couldn’t even begin to try and find him. By the time someone got to him, he was dead. He was one of the draft of recently joined and very young soldiers, who looked as if they should all be at school.
Originally 750-strong, the Dorsets lost 85 young lives at Kohima and three times that number wounded.
Kohima was the turning point in General Slim’s campaign in Burma. The turning point at Kohima was the battle on Garrison Hill. And the victory at Garrison Hill was won by the 2nd Dorsets and Gerry Waterhouse’s tank. Although the campaign continued fiercely for another year while they chased the defeated Japanese back through Burma, this is why Bill Slim chose the 2nd Dorsets to represent the British Army in Occupied Tokyo in 1946.
And it’s one of our many memories today when we remember with pride and sorrow not just the Dorsets but all those of all the services of all the Allied nations who won for us the freedoms we’ve enjoyed for the past 80 years.
We must never forget their courage and their sacrifice. At the going down of the sun and in the morning – and whenever we pass the Kohima Stone – We will remember them
