Page 85 - AGC-Journal-2016

AGC JOURNAL 2016

the locals had kept safe. Knowing that the
parts may eventually disintegrate or not
The Memorial site. Left to right: Charlotte Taylor, Jerry Panus Tae,
Pelidah Panus Taie and Neil Anderson be around too long, I set about attempting
to return the parts to the UK for a possible
Below: One of the aircraft parts sent to the Museum. Left to right:
Jamie Convisser, Anirah Wat, Neil Anderson, Chin Wat, Yann Ai Lo and display in a military museum. I contacted
Richard Rining several museums, who expressed their
interest in obtaining the parts to display.
It took me over a year to secure funding
and arrange for the movement of the parts
from Sarawak to the UK. During this time,
I was still pursuing the Commonwealth
War Graves and UK agencies to attempt to
resolve the issues with the maintenance of
the Memorial.

Returning the Parts To The UK

My second visit in 2015 involved
organising the collection of parts from
Long Merarap and their movement to
the UK. The British High Commission in
Brunei had authorised the import of the
The Burial Party helicopter parts which were moved to
Brunei for onward shipment to the UK.
On 5 May 1963, a burial party was
lowered by helicopter onto the crash site Endnote
and the remains were buried in a hastily
dug grave at the site. There the bodies Over two years since first receiving the call,
remained until 1996. Those that died in I was granted permission to pay backdated
the crash were: maintenance funds to the landowner
Flight Lieutenant APJ Dobson RAF and set up an annual maintenance
Flight Lieutenant DRE Viner RAF During the 1970’s and 1980’s contract. I visited the Memorial site on
Corporal (Tech) JL Williams RAF Mr John Day, the son of MH Day visited the 7th April 2016, almost 53 years to
Major HAI Thompson MC the sites. He contacted the Ministry of the date (4 May 1963) that the helicopter
Major RHD Norman MBE Defence and in 1996, the remains were crashed. I met again with the family in the
Corporal MP Murphy exhumed and moved to the memorial site longhouse and handed over some essential
Captain J Cornington and the land was leased to the Ministry of maintenance equipment and backdated
MH Day (Foreign Office) Defence in perpetuity. maintenance fees. During the visit, the
D Reddish (The Borneo Company) memorial maintenance contact was also
More Recent Events re-established to ensure that the memorial
The Borneo Terrain and will be maintained in perpetuity and that
the family will be paid each year. Before
Initial Memorial After conducting some research, it became departing I took time to lay a wreath from
apparent that the memorial and crash site
were now far more accessible than they all ranks of the British Armed Forces.
Due to the severity of the terrain and the were 50 years ago. This was mainly due to
inaccessibility of the crash site, the grave the logging lanes that had been gouged
became lost to the jungle and the nine out throughout the jungle in Sarawak, The Memorial after bring painted and cleaned
men were commemorated as ‘missing’ Borneo. I have visited the site three times
at the Terendak Military Cemetery, just now and here are some highlights from
outside of Melacca on the Malay Peninsula each visit.
(their names are still present today at this
memorial). In September 1963, the British
Army sent Hugh Cave RE from Brunei Making Contact With The
to build a memorial to the dead at the Longhouse/Land Owner
nearest prominent point, high ground
above the junction of the Merarap and My first visit in 2014 involved meeting
Trusan rivers. This is some 4 km (as the with the current land owners at the site of
crow flies) from the crash site. At about the the Memorial and after lengthy discussions
same time the local Muruts/Lun Bawang it was confirmed that there was no one
tribesmen built a wooden cross at the officially looking after the memorial. I was
memorial site. shown several parts of the helicopter that

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