THOMAS HOLLAND c.s.m
Thomas Holland (Ginger Holland)
The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Chindit)
Tommy was involved in many campaigns and was awarded two Burma stars for his contributions during operations in Burma (Tommy was captured by the Japanese escaped and returned to his unit. He like most of the force had malaria and would suffer from the condition for the rest of his life.
He was also later mentioned in dispatches for his contributions during the Berlin Blockade .
As part of the Chindits he was stationed in Burma he took his wife Amanda with him to Burma, where they stayed for the duration of the tour.
who was born In Burma in a military hospital in landour she lived in the camp along with sisters Violet, Edith who was born in born in madras 1939) Mary Jane & brother Tommy Holland jnr
They returned home afterwards to reside at 55 Sunnylands Avenue Carrickfergus Co Antrim. Which was nicknamed the camp as many returning families lived there.
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First Battalion was stationed both at home and abroad in India, Iraq, Shanghai and Singapore, and when the Second World War started was again in India. The Second Battalion which had been re-formed in 1937, was at Catterick, and went to France in the British Expeditionary Force as it had done twenty-five years before, being amongst the troops to be evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. In 1942 the First Battalion was flown to Burma to help stem the Japanese advance and in 1943 took part in the operations in the Arakan peninsula. After re-fitting, the Second Battalion as part of the Fifth Division, left England in 1942 on a journey that was to include Madagascar, India, Iraq, Persia, Syria, Lebanon, and eventually arrived in Egypt in time to do its share in the conquest of Sicily. The Sixth Battalion, in the 38th (Irish) Brigade, landed in North Africa in the same year and after the defeat of the German Armies there, went on to join in the invasion of Sicily.
The Sixth Battalion, in the 38th (Irish) Brigade, landed in North Africa in the same year and after the defeat of the German Armies there, went on to join in the invasion of Sicily. After the successful completion of this operation both the Second and Sixth Battalions landed in Italy where the Allied Armies were continuing their advance. In July 1944, the Sixth Battalion was disbanded, its place being taken by the Second which, when the war ended was sent to Austria on garrison duty, being disbanded in 1947.
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After the war, the First Battalion returned to India from Burma and after a stay in Hong Kong was engaged for many months hunting terrorists in the jungles of Malaya. In 1949 after a brief spell at home it went to the West Indies returning to the United Kingdom in April 1951. In 1952 it was presented with the Freedom of Enniskillen, the town of its birth and later in the same year went abroad to the Suez Canal Zone and afterwards to Kenya where it helped to suppress the Mau Mau terror;
while in the latter country it received the Freedom of Nairobi in perpetuity, the first and so far, the only time that a British Regiment has been so honoured by a colonial city..
