John Hewlett Nunneley MBE (22 November 1922 – 27 July 2013) was a British Army officer and businessman. A veteran of the

Burma campaign The Burma campaign was a series of battles fought in the British colony of British rule in Burma, Burma as part of the South-East Asian theatre of World War II. It primarily involved forces of the Allies of World War II, Allies (mainly from ...

, he later worked for reconciliation between Japanese and British. He was born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia and educated at Lawrence Sheriff School, a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, England. He concealed his age to enlist in the

Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment) The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), formerly the 3rd Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army traditionally raised in the English county of Kent and garrisoned at Canterbury. It had a history dating back to 1572 and ...

at 17 and was commissioned into the

Somerset Light Infantry The Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army, which served under various titles from 1685 to 1959. In 1959, the regiment was amalgamated with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry to form the Som ...

in September 1941. He was seconded to the

King's African Rifles The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a British Colonial Auxiliary Forces regiment raised from Britain's East African colonies in 1902. It primarily carried out internal security duties within these colonies along with military service elsewher ...

(KAR) and mostly served with a battalion recruited from the

Tanganyika Territory Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various forms from 1916 until 1961. It was initially administered under military occupation. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a League o ...

. He was initially based in

British Somaliland British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate (), was a protectorate of the United Kingdom in modern Somaliland. It was bordered by Italian Somalia, French Somali Coast and Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia (Italian Ethiopia from 1936 ...

where his battalion guarded Italian prisoners after the East African Campaign. He moved to

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

in August 1943 while attached to 25th (East African) Brigade headquarters at

Kurunegala Kurunegala (, ; , ) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of the North Western Province, Sri Lanka, North Western Province and the Kurunegala District. Kurunegala was an ancient royal capital for 50 years, from the end of the 13th ...

. He rejoined 36 KAR when it was posted to Ceylon and accompanied it to India and Burma. In 1944 the battalion spearheaded the advance of the Fourteenth Army down the Kabaw Valley. While in Burma he recovered a Union Jack flag that had been captured by the Japanese at

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

in February 1942. Serving as an intelligence officer, he was wounded in the leg by a grenade on 17 October 1944. After the war, Nunneley worked for Beaverbrook Newspapers and as a director of the

British Railways Board The British Railways Board (BRB) was a State ownership, nationalised industry in the United Kingdom that operated from 1963 to 2001. Until 1997, it was responsible for most railway services in History of rail transport in Great Britain 1995 to d ...

from 1962 to 1987. As chief publicity officer, he worked as Dr Beeching's assistant on writing "The Reshaping of British Railways" report (1963). In later life he was chairman of the Burma Campaign Fellowship Group and worked towards reconciliation between Burma veterans of Japan and the Allies. He wrote an account of his wartime experiences and of the death of a young Luo recruit Tomasi Kitinya (Thomas Liech) in ''Tales from the King’s African Rifles'' (2000). He had earlier edited ''Tales from the Burma Campaign 1942-45'' (1998) from accounts of Japanese soldiers. In 2001 he was appointed MBE for services to UK-Japanese relations."Queen's Birthday Honours"
BBC News 15 June 2001

References

External links

Obituary in ''The Times'', 25 September 2013
(paywall) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunneley, John 1922 births 2013 deaths People educated at Lawrence Sheriff School King's African Rifles officers Somerset Light Infantry officers British Army personnel of World War II British Rail people Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Richmond, London Australian emigrants to the United Kingdom