Robert Matthew Leary
British Army 1st Battalion, C Company Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
from:Bradford
My father, Bob Leary and two brothers enlisted before the war and when war broke out my father was transferred to Strensall Queen Elizabeth Barracks to help make up 1st Battalion, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. My uncle told me that he lost track of my father but met up with him some time later and was told that my father had been in London for some high up reason and had been to Holland. My father had told me that he'd been part of a group to evacuate the Dutch royal family as German paratroopers were after them.
He embarked on the Viceroy of India on 30th (or possibly 20th) August 1942 and arrived in Bombay on his birthday which was 24th October 1942. While in Poona the regiment changed to 149 RAC squadron which was made up of A B C & D squadrons and that led to him fighting in Burma. My aunt told me that a ship my father was on was hit and he was in the water for some time and suffered shell shock but only had two weeks leave and then had to go back to his regiment. I don't know any more details of that. After Burma he came back to the UK on the Empress of Burma.
