Thomas Cunningham

Thomas Cunningham served in the 1st Battalion

Orde Wingate's Chindits

The WW2 Chindits

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Thomas Cunningham was born in Wigan 1919 where he lived at 188 Bell Lane with his WW1 veteran father and his mother. He joined the 1st Bn Lancashire in September 1939 and served with them in India and Burma just prior to the Bn taking part in the Chindit Operations.

He transferred to the Army Air Corp in October 1942, before becoming a member of the Parachute Regiment and taking part in the Op Market Garden at Arnhem, where he was shot and wounded, resulting in the loss of one lung.

He was captured and made a POW in Stalag X11A as POW number 40500,from where he wrote to his mother. The date 30 September is significent, most of our forces had been captured on the 25th, so Thomas held out to the very last.

Pegasus Archive holds details of POW's

He would have been liberated in April 1945