Hi All, Just thought I'd share this nominal roll for all those Nigerian Other Ranks that survived their time as Chindits in Burma and returned to West Africa aboard HMT Derbyshire on the 23rd March 1946. So unusual to see rolls for African troops.
Are those rolls a 'passenger list' from the ship or are they collated prior to leaving Far East, or on return to West Africa?? TD
A collated nominal roll TD. There were over 1100 African Other Ranks aboard the troopship according to the diary, so the listing almost covers the entire complement.
but I assume from what you say not 100% - I was sort of wondering if this was going to be the first time I had seen a passenger list of a 'troopship', but presumably not. TD
Probably not TD, the ship may well have had other West African Regiments aboard, as well as officers from the 12th Nigerians.
bamboo43 Hi Steve, There were a number of flight manifests with Nigerian Regt details on them. I've not recorded their names/numbers, but did make a note of which screen shots they were. One example below......
Commander of the aircraft above was Lt. Richard Henry Neville Barker, formerly Royal Lincolns. Commissioned 21st September 1940, hospitalised post Operation Thursday (unsurprisingly) and no longer on strength with 12 battalion Nigeria Regiment by January 1945:
bamboo43 Hi Steve, Just plodding through the manifests and came across this one. I believe CSM Kitt won the MM. Would that have been with the Nigerians or did he just happen to be on the same flight as them?
Hi John, Alfred Kitt served with the 7th Nigeria Regiment on Operation Thursday. Many senior NCOs from British Regiments took up positions in West Africa Regiments during WW2 and were sprinkled across these units as a bolster to the British officers commanding. As you mention, Kitt was awarded the Military Medal for his efforts (see below):
