Captain John Derwent ALLEN (138125)
Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry attached to the 4th Nigeria Regiment, West African Frontier Force

Date of birth: 18th January 1918
Date of death: 25th January 1944

Killed in action aged 26
Buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery in Burma Plot 10 Row K Grave 9
John Derwent Allen was born at Portsmouth on the 18th of January 1918 the younger son of Vice Admiral John Derwent Allen RN CB and Alice Ruth Mort (nee Atkinson-Willes) Allen of Red Cottage, Townsend Avenue, St Albans in Hertfordshire.

He was educated at Lancing College where he won an Exhibition and was in Seconds House from September 1931 to July 1936. He was a member of the Running Team from 1934 to 1936 and was a member of the athletics Team in 1936. He was editor of the Lancing College Magazine from 1934 to 1936. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps achieving Certificate A in 1936. He was appointed as a House Captain in 1935 and as a Prefect in 1936. While at Lancing he excelled in Latin, Greek, French, and English and in 1936 he won the Stanley Scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford where he studied classics achieving a BA 2nd in Classical Mods.

Following the outbreak of war he attended an Officer Cadet Training Unit before being commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on the 4th of July 1940. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 4th of January 1942. He was promoted to temporary Captain on the 26th of February 1943 and was later attached to the 4th Nigerian Regiment and served with them in Burma.

At 8.20am on the 25th of January 1944 the Commanding Officer of the 4th Nigerian Regiment issued verbal orders for an attack on enemy positions at Kanwa in the Kaladan Valley in Burma. The regiment advanced shortly afterwards and mortar and light machine gun fire was heard when the lead companies made contact with the enemy at 10am. At 11.20am C Company reported that the village of Limpu had been cleared of the enemy and at 12.15pm they reported that the village of Ama was also clear; they reported that they could hear firing from Kanwa, some 500 yards distant. At 1.20pm the Battalion Headquarters moved to Ama, although they ran into a Japanese patrol and suffered several casualties during the ensuing fire fight. By early afternoon the assaulting troops had entered Kanwa. At 2.25pm John Allen's Company was in the village when they received orders to join Battalion Headquarters which had been established in the southern part of the village. As they withdrew to redeploy they came under machine gun fire which killed John Allen and wounded two other men, one fatally.

His body was recovered in the village by men of A Company after the fighting had died down.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Christ Church, Oxford.

Back