Sydney Wigginton, a Sherwood Forester from Toton, fought a secret war and was killed in a remote corner of a far-off land. More than 70 years later, his son has finally been able to pay his respects to the father he never knew. ANDY SMART reports.
‘I just wish I had known then what I know now’
Lt Col Sydney Wigginton of the Sherwood Foresters and the Special Operations Executive.
Gavin Wigginton pictured during his emotional journey to his father's grave in Burma.
Article by Nottinghampost.com
FATE dealt the devil’s hand to Nottingham war hero Sydney Wigginton. Wearing the uniform of the Sherwood Foresters, the city transport manager from Toton had served his country with distinction from North Africa to the steaming jungle of Burma. He had fought a clandestine, behind-the-lines, war with Churchill’s secretive Special Operations Executive and after six long years was ready to go home to his pregnant wife Eunice back in Nottingham. But he was given one last mission to complete: fly from Rangoon to Calcutta to debrief soldiers freed from Japanese POW camps. NEP-E01-S2 34 On September 7, 1945 Lieutenant Colonel Wigginton and 15 other crew and passengers climbed on board Dakota KN 584. As the twin-engined plane flew over the eastern state of Kayin, Burma, it was slammed by the winds of a monsoon storm and then struck by lightning. The aircraft crashed near a remote mountain village. There were no survivors. By many accounts, it was the last fatal air crash in the Burma theatre of World War II. In January 1946, an officer visited the area and, together with locals, recovered what he could of the remains and buried them in the compound of the nearby Mewaing monastery. Two months later, at the home they had shared in Toton, his widow Eunice gave birth to a son –she named him Gavin. He would grow up knowing little of his father’s remarkable war, but always wondering what his father did. “I knew he had been in the-
forces but my mother, who died in 2009, rarely talked about him, other than to say he was a man of whom I should be very proud.” A life in industry, including Imperial Tobacco, would see Gavin emigrate to Australia and it was there, in 2009, that his quest literally caught fire. “I had a bush fire on my property and it gave me the opportunity to sort through mother’s papers, "said Gavin, 71. He found a handful of possessions relating to his father: photographs of a graveyard where his father had been buried, a wallet with Sydney’s initials, a Sherwood Foresters emblem –and an OBE. Who was this man and what had he done to earn such a singular honour? Gavin had to find out. In 2013 he came back to England and with an appointment at the National Records centre in Kew, began looking for the story behind his father’s honour. “I came to find out about the OBE and stumbled across the SOE and eventually, I found my father.” Many of the documents, including the OBE citation, had only been declassified decades after the conflict ended. His OBE citation spoke glowingly of an officer who had “outstanding qualities of far sightedness, initiative, and what I know now. “I do know he was a wonderful man who served his country with great distinction. Had he lived, who knows what he could have done.” clear thinking” and had achieved remarkable success. One example cited was his role in organising the evacuation of Tito’s headquarters totalling some -
Gavin Wigginton, right, with his nephew Alex, at the grave of his father Sydney, who was killed in Burma in 1945
150 men –from Yugoslavia to Italy with just 12 hours 'notice. The two successive days Gavin spent in the archives “opened a door on my father’s life which was a total surprise”, he later commented. “It came as a huge shock. My mother was not very keen on talking about the war and we had been brought up not to ask questions. “But then I found the metal box with all sorts of amazing material. “I just wish I had known then what I know now. “I do know he was a wonderful man who served his country with great distinction. Had he lived, who knows what he could have done.” A young officer with the Sherwood Foresters whose talent for logistics had been noted, Sydney was recruited in 1942 into the SOE, an under cover organisation of some 13,000 men that conducted operations behind enemy lines, including supplying resistance groups and waging propaganda and sabotage campaigns. He was posted to Burma where the SOE was working to undermine the occupying Japanese by supporting resistance movements, including the Karen who were mostly loyal to the British. Sydney’s contribution was significant. Following his tragic death, his CO Colonel Cumming penned a poignant letter to his widow Eunice, telling her that Sydney's "knowledge and experience were of the greatest possible assistance to us”. “In fact, "he wrote, “much of our ultimate success as a force in that campaign must be credited to the excellence
of his work.” What Gavin learned on his visit to Kew strengthened his determination to travel to Burma and visit his father’s grave. When his mother passed away in 2009, Gavin had kept some of her ashes, hoping that one day he could place them beside his father’s grave. And he wanted to thank the descendants of those who had helped to recover the remains of the men and bury them together in the monastery. But there was a major obstacle. The region was in the grip of a rebel uprising and off limits to foreigners. Gavin turned to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and negotiations with British and Burmese authorities began to enable him, and relatives of some of the other victims, to visit the burial site. And finally, on Remembrance Day 2015, during a ceremony attended by the British Ambassador Andrew Patrick, Gavin Wigginton stood beside his father’s grave. After placing his wreath on a wooden stand above a plaque bearing Lieutenant-Colonel Sydney Wigginton’s name, he lowered his head and paused for a few seconds. With that small but meaningful show of respect to the father he never knew, a three year quest that had taken him from rural Victoria in Australia to the National Archives in Kew, London, and the mountains of Kayin State had been completed. “I guess that was the moment at which I said, you know, I’ve done the right thing. “You’ll be remembered now–not missing in action.” It was the final chapter in the story of Lieutenant Colonel Sydney Isaac ‘Wig’ Wigginton and the perfect ending for the biography his son has now completed
The biography by Gavin Wigginton of his father Lt Col Sydney Wigginton, a Second World War hero from Nottingham who died in a fatal air crash in Burma during World War II.
The remote area of modern-day Myanmar where Sherwood Foresters and SOE officer Sydney Wigginton, from Toton, is buried.