60. George and Olive Lewtey of Rangoon and Surrey

George Ronald Crutchley Lewtey was born in Burma in 1881. His parents were William Henry and Ellen Lucy Lewtey.

Olive Eleanor Beale was born in Moulmein, Burma in 1883. Her parents were Alfred and Florence Beale.

George and Olive married in Rangoon on 10 November 1909.

George and Olive at Winsome's wedding

He was an electrical and mechanical engineer. She was a music teacher.

There is a record of an Olive Beale, sailing from Liverpool to Montréal. There is a record of a George R Lewty serving with Army Service Corps in WWI.

They had two children in Rangoon:

• 62.2.1 Winsome Eleanor Lewtey (1911-1982)
• 62.2.2 Marguerite Mary Lewtey (1914-1989)

More on these individuals in Chapter 62.

They were in Rangoon at the outbreak of WWII. After a little research, I asked Mum if she knew how they had got out of Burma. "Didn't they have to walk a long way?" I suppose such understatement may have been typical of the day, especially when talking to young people.

They are recorded on the list of evacuees held by the Anglo-Burmese Library, with a destination address of Shady View Solan, Simla Hills, Himachal Pradesh, and an arrival date of 19 May 1942, three days after the birth of their granddaughter, four days after the monsoon broke, and four days after the completion of the Army's evacuation.

On 7 March 1942, the Burma Army evacuated Rangoon after implementing a scorched earth plan to deny the Japanese the use of its facilities. The port was destroyed and the oil terminal was blown up. As the Allies departed, the city was on fire. The last train left on 7 March; the last shipping left in the early hours of the following morning.

The Allies tried to make a stand in central Burma. It was hoped that the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Burma, and the Sixth and Sixty-sixth Armies, could hold a front south of Mandalay. The Allies hoped that the Japanese advance would slow down; instead, it gained speed.  The Japanese reinforced their two divisions in Burma with troops transferred from Malaya and the Dutch East Indies after the fall of Singapore and Java. They also brought in large numbers of captured British trucks and other vehicles, which allowed them to move supplies rapidly using southern Burma's road network.

The Allies were hampered by the progressive breakdown of the civil government in the areas they held, and the large numbers of refugees. The flow of refugees began soon after the bombing of Rangoon in late December 1941 and increased to a "mass exodus" in February 1942 as the Indian (and Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Burmese) population of Burma fled to India, fearing both the Japanese and hostile Burmese. The retreat was conducted in horrible circumstances. Starving refugees, disorganised stragglers, and the sick and wounded clogged the primitive roads and tracks leading to India.

Perhaps they caught a train for the first leg of their journey. The first 400 miles would have been to Mandalay: from there the most direct route to the border was another 260 miles. Myitkina was another 340 miles away from the Japanese, and was the temporary capital but still 230 miles from the Indian [now Bangladeshi] border across the mountains. "Hills erupt from the plains of Burma. Not rolling and gentle, but strident and steep... Green with tangle forest and jungle clinging to outcrops of rock, the hills range in rows, on and on, they rise and fall like a giant corrugated roof." (Exodus Burma). Whatever happened, they ended their journey in an unfeasibly long walk, through unspeakable conditions. All these walks ended with 5-15 days through hills 5000-8000 ft high in almost unbearable heat.

The Independent has the story of one escape: "There were seven different routes out of Burma, which varied in length, difficulty and condition – and while Ram's family went on a more straightforward and sensible path, even on that route there were many deaths. Diseases such as tuberculosis, dysentery, and malaria flourished. [Insects also plagued the refugees.] Exhaustion and lack of food also swiftly picked off weaker travellers – and left families with terrible decisions to make." Cambridge University has film of a famous rescue.

At least 500,000 civilian fugitives reached India, while an unknown number, conservatively estimated between 10,000 and 50,000, died along the way. In later months, 70 to 80% of those who reached India were afflicted with diseases such as dysentery, smallpox, malaria or cholera, with 30% "desperately so".

Remarkably, after the Chindits (special operations units of the British and Indian armies) had fought back in 1943, and the advances of Viscount Slim's 14th Army, supported by the US Commandos, through 1944, Meiktila and Mandalay were recaptured in March 1945, and Rangoon on 4 May.

"Burma was a phenomenal victory in the most difficult of circumstances, and was as much a victory over climate and geography as the enemy. It was a victory won through the courage and endurance of troops drawn from across the British Commonwealth, and the superb generalship of Slim. While history has often referred to the Burma campaign as the “forgotten war”, it is clear there is an enormous amount worthy of remembrance." (Ministry of Defence)

Somehow, George and Olive made it to Britain; they lived in Surrey. He died there on 25 August 1953, she in North Walsham on 5 April 1955. I know sadly little about my great-grandparents. Mum remembers them as lovely people. They played golf and had dogs.


Next (George's siblings)