Jack Connor was just 22 when he was called up to serve in the Far East campaign.Jack Connor of Rutherglen served in Burma during World War II(Image: Contributed/Rutherglen Reformer)

Cherished medals belonging to a Rutherglen war veteran were on display at the town’s library to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.

Jack Connor served in Burma during World War II, and his prized medals including the Burma Star were showcased at the library on Main Street in his home town, along with his photos, documents and newspaper articles relating to the Far East campaign, often known as the “Forgotten War”.

He and his comrades were remembered by his daughter Dorothy, who laid a wreath at the town’s cenotaph on the poignant occasion, along with displaying a peace lily beside the historic items on display at the library.

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Jack was called up at the age of just 22 to serve as a gunner in the 311/129th Lowland Field Regiment Royal Artillery, part of the 17th Indian Division, 14th Army – and spent most of his service on the front line fighting in savage battles at Meiktila and Tiddim to secure the safety of India and Burma from the invading Japanese forces.

The soldiers endured sweltering jungle heat, disease and hostile terrain, often with little food and few supplies, as they fought a brutal enemy in the Far East campaign. He served for more than three years in the Far East, later telling Dorothy that he was never frightened as “we had too much to do”.

He served for more than three years in Burma and later told how he had marched in the victory parade in Rangoon. Thousands of soldiers continued fighting in the Far East for months after the end of the conflict in Europe; and VJ Day on August 15, 1945, the day Japan surrendered, marked the end of World War II.

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Dorothy said of her late father: “When we were growing up he would often say, ‘I was in the Battle of Meiktila. I marched in the victory parade in Rangoon’, and read from his favourite poem Towards The East.

“When he was in his late 60s he would sometimes wake in the middle of the night thinking he was still fighting the Japanese. As well as the memories in his mind he carried the battle scars on his body, as all his comrades did.

“He met up with other Rutherglen lads but reported that a number had been killed in the first Burma campaign. They were told not to talk about their experiences and just get on with their lives, which they did.”

Jack finally returned home to Rutherglen in April 1946 and returned to his work as an engineer and as a trade union shop steward at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. He married wife Eileen in 1948 and the couple welcomed two children, Dorothy and John.

He wore his Burma Star medal at the couple’s ruby wedding celebration, and asked for his medals to be brought into hospital in his last hours before he passed away in 1990 at the age of 70.

The Burma star was placed on Jack’s coffin at his funeral, which was conducted by Dorothy who described him as “brave to the last”. Months after his passing, his wife and daughter laid a special local tribute on Remembrance Day at at the statue of 14th Army commander Field Marshall William Slim beside the Cenotaph in London.

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Dorothy said: “My mum laid down a tiny posy of a red rose and a sprig of heather, tied with tartan ribbon, planted by my dad and grown in rich Rutherglen soil and said, ‘you’ve not been forgotten’. She did that for all the men.”

She told how, after the war, her father “would get on his soap box at Speakers’ Corner in Rutherglen Main Street and fight for workers’ rights and socialism”, and how the bravery and sacrifice of local soldiers have been recognised during the past decade with motions at both the Scottish and Westminster parliaments.

Dorothy added of Jack: “His entry in the book of remembrance at Linn crematorium is a simple one. It’s the last line from his favourite poem – ‘Tonight, with comrades who have claimed and found me, I march towards the East.’”

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VJ Day was marked in Lanarkshire with a ceremony led by Lord Lieutenant Lady Susan Haughey and attended by South Lanarkshire provost Margaret Cooper and North Lanarkshire counterpart Kenneth Duffy.

They were joined by war veterans, local politicians, clergy and members of the public for the commemoration in Motherwell, where they observed a minute’s silence and Lady Haughey laid the first wreath to honour “the courage and sacrifice of those who fought and suffered so far from home” eight decades earlier.

Provost Cooper gave the benediction, while Provost Duffy said: “We stand here not just to remember history, but to honour real people, fathers, sons, brothers and friends who endured horrors we can scarcely imagine.

“Their courage and sacrifice happened on the other side of the world, but the impact was felt in every town, village and street here at home. Today is about gratitude and saying, in the clearest way we can, ‘we haven’t forgotten you.’ And as long as we keep coming together like this, we never will.”

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