ARC TBC - MICHAEL JOHN LANDERS _ NEWPORT, WALES

[Eddie Parks]

HI Guys,

This chap is my current research project.

I have:
His birth cert
A note from the Palestine Police OCA - the contact for the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol seens inop?
Departure for the ME
Three medal roll mentions as note below
Return from the ME
Death - cert on the way.

BUT I can find no more. Here's the tale so far can anyone suggest furtjer lines on inquiry??


Michael John Landers
1st British Sergeant Palestine Police
British Warder Palestine Prisons
Malayan Police

Michael John Landers was born on the 9th of December 1918, the third child of John Landers and Hannah Hunt, his wife. He was born at 6, McCarthy's Court, Newport in Wales and his father was employed as a Dock Labourer. His eldest sister Mary was born in 1914, Annie came along in 1917 and finally Agnes in 1921.

According to the Palestine Police Old Comrades Association he signed on with the Palestine Police on 11th November 1938 with the recruit number 2913. The records of the Pacific and Orient Steam Navigation Company show that he sailed on the 11th November from London aboard the SS Narkunda bound for Port Said with a large draft of fellow policemen, arriving in Palestine on the 24th.

After passing out from the Mount Scorpius Depot he served as foot constable 1738 joining the Signals and later the Port and Marine Division. He was also at some time after 1945 attached to the Palestine Prison Service as British Warder No 96.

Michael Landers appears on the roll for the General Service Medal with clasp Palestine as a British Constable and on the roll for the clasp Palestine 1945-1948 as a 1st Class British Sergeant. This medal with two clasps was sent out in 1952.

He also appears on the roll of civilians employed by the Palestine Government as W/96 W J Landers - British Warder. There is an annotation to show the medal was sent out in 1955. It is named simply W. J. LANDERS. Presumably the error in his initials allowed this medal to slip through the net as a duplicate issue.

Having remained in Palestine through the war he would have been entitled to the War and Defence Medals. In addition many members of the Port and Marine Division qualified for the 1939-45 Star and the Africa Star for offshore patrols in the Mediterranean. The whereabouts of this - his main group - is unknown.

In 1948 after the Stand Down Michael Landers returned to the UK with a large number of his colleagues aboard the SS Empress of Australia, disembarking at Liverpool. His address was given as 10, Charles Street, Greenhill, Swansea.

According to the PPOCA he later served with the Federation of Malaya Police.

The former colonial copper died in Newport at the age of 86 in 2005.


Thanks for looking

Eddie

[Eddie Parks]

No ideas? Even the most off the wall idea?

[MarkCDodd]

What do you want to expand upon?

[Eddie Parks]

Late update

This whole tale is a Red Herring follwing misinformation from the PP OCA. MJ and WJ Landesrs were quite different people.

Here's the real story:


William Joseph Landers
British Warder Palestine Prisons
Security Officer Foreign Office

William Joseph Landers was born in the Townland of Knocklofty, near Clonmel in Co Tipperary, Ireland on 18th March 1918. He was the son of William Landers, a labourer, and his wife Bridget Wall.

There appears to be no trace of William Landers until he is reported by a member of the Palestine Police OCA to have joined the Prison Service in Palestine as British Warder Number W96 on 11th November 1939, just too late to qualify for the Palestine clasp to the General Service Medal, which closed on 3 September that year.

He remained with the Prison Service until the final British withdrawal from Palestine on 15 May 1948 and thus qualified for the clasp Palestine 1945- 1948. He appears on the medal roll of civil servants and civilians employed by the Palestine Administration. The medal was sent out to him in 1955 and is impressed to W. J. LANDERS.

On 19th December 1956 William Landers was appointed a Grade 3 Officer in D Branch of the Foreign Officer "“ the branch which provides security guards to embassies and consulates world-wide. In August 1958 he was transferred to Peking.

In June 1960 the Palestine Police Old Comrades Association"™s Newsletter No 40 records a new member joining: "4312 "“ W. J. Landers ex Wdr 96 c/o The Foreign Office, Downing Street, London, SW1 (Peking bag)". His UK address is given as 223, Beam Avenue, Dagenham, Essex.

He clearly didn"™t think much of Peking as the next issue records that he has moved to the British Embassy, Saigon, South Vietnam, for a tour of 18 months. He wrote "so far I prefer it to dismal Peking". Following his Saigon experience he was transferred to Mexico City on 16th February 1962. In 1964 another move followed to Ankara in Turkey.

In March of 1966 issue 63 of the Newsletter records that he is back at Beam Avenue from Ankara. He disappears from the Foreign Office lists the following year. He would then have been 48 years old.

I have not been able to find any further trace of him until on 16th May 1994 he was admitted to St Anne"™s Home, 77, Manor Road, Stoke Newington, run then as it is today the Little Sisters of the Poor. His admission was arranged by Sister Dominic Landers from the Convent of Mercy, London Road, Newcastle-under-Lyme; his sister. The home"™s records show that he had never married and that his last employment had been as a Hotel Security Officer.

He must have been very ill at the time of his admission since he died less than a month later on 13th June 1994 of bronchopneumonia at Homerton Hospital, Hackney, London. He was then 76 years old. His death was officially registered by his sister.

[BC Wench]

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