107076 Major John Helier LANDER, OBE, Royal Engineers

Major John Helier Lander, (107076) OBE, RE

Trying to find out anything I can about this chap. A civil Engineer before the war he apparently worked for London Underground before commissioned into RE. Served in Malta, Sicily and Italy, AFAIK.

Want to know what became of him post war and if he has any descendants? Got his medal card from TNA which lists his OBE but so far that's about it. Anyone got a source for more? Googling him turns up a portrait painter who died in 1944, no idea if related or not.

 

Thanks for all that dbf, looks like he was descended from the portrait painter after all. The portrait painter was from St Helier in Jersey and added the St. to his professional name in honour of his birthplace and, presumably, because it gave him more gravitas. He did a good line in painting portraits of senior officers during WWI and post-war painted a lot of Royalty. His eldest son, also John Helier Lander, was in Malta when his dad died in February 1944 so I presume he got some home leave for funeral. He was posted to AFHQ in June 1944 where he earned his OBE.

If he was 1 yo in 1911 then he must have just turned 70, or thereabout, when he died in 1980. Hell of a young age to die at. Now I need to track down his children. As he was 34 yo's in 1944, and had a previously distinguished career as a Civil Engineer, pre-war, I'd have to assume his children, or at least the first couple (if indeed he had children) were born early in the war, with maybe another one or two post-war.