Description
Object description
Collection of ms and ts documents relating to the service of Major William Russel Walton Ferguson, a British officer who served with the 3 (53) Gold Coast Field Company in East Africa and Burma during the Second World War. Includes: News clipping concerning the capture of Gondar; MS and photocopied letters written to parents from January 1943 to April 1945, mainly concerning day-to-day life as well as the death of his brother Thomas (Hugh Oswald Ferguson) in Italy; MS diary for the year 1944 which records events during the Japanese U-Go offensive; note asking for permission to engage small party of Japanese, 23 January 1944; TS situation reports (sitreps) from April to May 1944 sent by IV Corps, 23rd Division and HQ 81st West Africa Division concerning operations around Imphal and Kohima; MS engineer intelligence summaries from 1944-45 with hand-drawn diagrams and maps; hand-drawn map of a Dakota strip constructed at Zidaw; annotated map of Burma with a section of the Imphal Road outlined and marked where events took place during March 1944; news clipping relating to the Arakan campign; two letters of appreciation from Sir James Grigg and Sir Jack Lawson, Secretaries of State for War, on behalf of HM King George VI for earning a mention in despatches; War Office letter that accompanied issue of bronze oak leaf with instructions for wear; letter that accompanied issue of Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal; TS draft copies for 'A Short History of 2nd and 3rd (Gold Coast) Field Companies in the Abyssinian Campaign 1939 to 1941 and 2nd (WA) Field Company in the Burma Campaign 1942 to 1946' by Brigadier H W Baldwin OBE and correspondence between Baldwin and Ferguson regarding recollections and fact-checking, 1980-81; stipple portrait of Winston Churchill by Dorelle.
Content description
Collection of ms and ts documents relating to the service of Major William Russel Walton Ferguson, a British officer who served with the 3 (53) Gold Coast Field Company in East Africa and Burma during the Second World War. Includes: News clipping concerning the capture of Gondar; MS and photocopied letters written to parents from January 1943 to April 1945, mainly concerning day-to-day life as well as the death of his brother Thomas (Hugh Oswald Ferguson) in Italy; MS diary for the year 1944 which records events during the Japanese U-Go offensive; note asking for permission to engage small party of Japanese, 23 January 1944; TS situation reports (sitreps) from April to May 1944 sent by IV Corps, 23rd Division and HQ 81st West Africa Division concerning operations around Imphal and Kohima; MS engineer intelligence summaries from 1944-45 with hand-drawn diagrams and maps; hand-drawn map of a Dakota strip constructed at Zidaw; annotated map of Burma with a section of the Imphal Road outlined and marked where events took place during March 1944; news clipping relating to the Arakan campign; two letters of appreciation from Sir James Grigg and Sir Jack Lawson, Secretaries of State for War, on behalf of HM King George VI for earning a mention in despatches; War Office letter that accompanied issue of bronze oak leaf with instructions for wear; letter that accompanied issue of Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal; TS draft copies for 'A Short History of 2nd and 3rd (Gold Coast) Field Companies in the Abyssinian Campaign 1939 to 1941 and 2nd (WA) Field Company in the Burma Campaign 1942 to 1946' by Brigadier H W Baldwin OBE and correspondence between Baldwin and Ferguson regarding recollections and fact-checking, 1980-81; stipple portrait of Winston Churchill by Dorelle.
Label
William Russel Walton Ferguson, born 3 March 1910 in Nottingham, was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the Royal West African Frontier Force in June 1939. He served in the East African campaign as an officer of the 3 (53) West African Field Company, participating in the Battle of Gondar where they were involved in engineering works. From November 1943 to April 1945 he served with the 3rd West African Field Company in the Burma Campaign. First attached to the 23rd Indian Infantry Division, IV Corps, 3rd Field Company saw action around Imphal during the Japanese U-Go Offensive and were heavily involved in various engineering works such as repairing roads, building airstrips, clearing booby traps and constructing defensive positions, while also briefly serving in an infantry role. Having been the only West African unit to serve in the Central Assam Front during the war, they were then sent to re-join the 81st (West Africa) Division in the Arakan in May 1944 where the monsoon prevented any large-scale operations. Ferguson was demobilised in January 1946, finishing with the rank of Major. After the war he worked as a civil engineer in Nigeria.
Ferguson was awarded two mentions in despatches during the war.
History note
Cataloguer ATK