John Nunneley

Who is John Nunneley?

John Hewlett Nunneley MBE was a British army officer and businessman. A veteran of the Burma campaign, he later worked for reconciliation between Japanese and British.

He was born in Sydney, Australia and educated at Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby. He concealed his age to enlist in the Royal East Kent Regiment at 17 and was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry in September 1941.

He was seconded to the King's African Rifles and mostly served with a battalion recruited from the Tanganyika Territory. He was initially based in British Somaliland where his battalion guarded Italian prisoners after the East African Campaign. He moved to Ceylon in August 1943 while attached to 25 Brigade headquarters at Kurunegala. He rejoined 36 KAR when it was posted to Ceylon and accompanied it to India and Burma. In 1944 the battalion spearheaded the advance of the Fourteenth Army down the Kabaw Valley. While in Burma he recovered a Union Jack flag that had been captured by the Japanese at Singapore in February 1942. Serving as an Intelligence Officer, he was wounded in the leg by a grenade on 17 October 1944.