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Peter George James Dobrée OBE

PRE-WORLD WAR II

Peter George James Dobrée who died on 21st October 2004, was born on 15th July 1913 at Belmont Castle at Grays in Essex, he was the youngest child of Franklin Bonamy Hankey Dobrée and Catherine Eliza Dobrée, with older brothers, Bill and Charles and sister June.

He was educated at Upcott school in Devon and at Westminster School where, amongst other things, he excelled at rowing before studying agriculture at Reading University.

When he graduated in 1935, England was very much in the grip of the depression and employment was in short supply. With two brothers already working in the Far East, Peter was encouraged to obtain work in the Malayan rubber industry. He was first employed as an assistant manager on a rubber estate in the State of Jehore in South Malaya. He travelled out to Malaya by ship and his love affair (if it can be called that) with Malaya began. His starting salary was $225 Malayan dollars a month (£28) with a bungalow provided. He also had to employ a cook/house boy for $60 a month to look after his domestic arrangements.

Peter developed his love of the country and its people and quickly became fluent in Malay; he also learned Tamil and some Urdu. Later he applied for a post in the Agricultural Department in the Malayan Colonial Service in Kuala Lumpur where he learned a lot about the country, its geography, its people and, of course, its agriculture.

He bought some land, mainly uncleared jungle, and established his own farm. He built up a herd of Indian cows and milking buffalos.

WORLD WAR II

When the war against Germany started in 1939, British subjects in Malaya were told to remain there and not join the armed forces in England. So Peter joined the Volunteer Light Battery as a gunner and anxiously awaited developments as the Japanese began flexing their muscles in China and making their aggressive intentions clear.

In 1942 the Japanese invaded Thailand and Peter’s extraordinary war began. The Japanese push through Thailand and Malaya proceeded at astonishing speed. Fortress Singapore was thought to be impregnable, at least from the sea. But from the north, relying upon the “impenetrable jungle” the defences were thin indeed.

Peter, based in Singapore, could see the writing on the wall. He knew there was an escape route through the islands to Sumatra. When the order came through to surrender, he immediately took steps to find a boat. To quote from his book “Hot Rain Means Danger”:

''“There were a lot of fires burning in the town which gave a certain amount of light. On the slipway there was only one boat I could possibly move. A small 12 foot plywood one-man sailing boat without mast or oars, and a hole through the bows from a bullet, or shell splinter. So I gathered up a foresail from another boat, a boom to use as a mast, and boards, which with my bayonet I was able to chop handholds in the ends so that they could serve as oars.”''

In this leaky vessel he then island hopped his way out, and catching up with a handful of other equally spirited allied souls on the way, they escaped to Ceylon. 130,000 allied troops were captured in Singapore and were sent to the brutal Japanese prisoner of war camps, only a tiny number escaped.

Peter then travelled to Bombay to enlist in the Indian Army, determined to find a way to help liberate Malaya. He trained for 3 months in Belgaum in the Western Ghats and was then posted to the 3rd Gurkha Regiment in Dehra Dun in Northern India. He offered his services to SOE, the Special Operations Executive, which in this region was known as Force 136.

With no aircraft capable of flying the 6,000 miles to Malaya and back, the first attempts were made by submarine, taking collapsible canoes.

On one of his early missions, Peter escorted a Chinese radio operator on the submarine HMS Tallyho. They intended to meet a junk in the Straits of Malacca. Things went according to plan until they were rammed by a Japanese destroyer and had their buoyancy tanks slashed on one side from stem to stern. They sank to the bottom and were depth charged. They spent several anxious hours on the sea bed, waiting for the destroyer to give up and wondering all the time whether they would be able to surface. Fortunately they were and limped all the way back to Ceylon on the surface.

In all, Peter spent a year training before being dropped back into occupied Malaya, a drop made possible by the use of US Liberator aircraft with long range fuel tanks.

During the training, in typical self-depreciating style, Peter told us that his instructor said: “Dobrée you stepped out of the plane correctly, hands at your sides and feet together, then suddenly your arms and legs were waving about!” He replied, “Sir, I think that must have been when I fainted!”

Peter’s mission into Malaya was then carried into effect with great success.

Put forward for a CBE but his proposer died, he was then awarded the OBE for his services, and it is worth repeating to you the citation submitted in respect of this award dated in mid 1945:

"In December 1944, it was decided to drop a British Officer and a small party of Malays into Malaya with the object of contacting friendly natives and building up (a) an intelligence network and (b) a resistance movement. Major Dobrée was selected for this difficult and dangerous task in a country from which there was no possibility of withdrawal until its liberation.  His was the first party ever to drop into Malaya which was done by night on 16th December 1944.

''On 21st December after a week of incredible hardship he made wireless telegraphy contact with Ceylon, briefed and sent out his agents and before long established excellent contacts amongst responsible Malays in the area. By the end of March 1945, he had recruited, armed and trained 100 Malays and 80 Chinese and had started a Malay Resistance Movement which is still growing. He organised garrison towns of North Malaya and from which a great deal of extremely valuable information of enemy forces and dispositions has been and continues to be reported. He organised the reception, in Malaya of four other British led parties, supplying them with guides, contacts and porterage which ensured success attained in other areas.  In April 1945 the Japanese attacked his jungle base in strength. Major Dobrée personally laid a series of ambushes which forced the Japanese to withdraw. Following up he again personally led his local resistance forces into the attack and took the village used by the enemy as a base and three Japanese transport elephants. Japanese casualties included the head of the Kempeitai in the area, who was killed. Major Dobrée himself was shot and wounded in the leg, but this did not prevent him re-grouping his forces and organising their withdrawal to a new and more secret base.''

''He has since continued to organise and direct his resistance and intelligence forces. His influence now extends over North of Malaya from coast to coast and he controls more than 300 armed men and an uncalculated number of unarmed reserves who wait word to concentrate for arming and training. Major Dobrée has now been in Malaya seven months, 1,500 miles from the nearest British supply base, and has shown unexcelled leadership, determination and courage in the heart of enemy occupied territory, and in one of the most difficult and unhealthy places in the world."''

The mission continued until the atom bomb was dropped and the Japanese surrendered. Peter marched his men, after some negotiation, into the town of Gerick to accept the surrender of Colonel Fujiama, Japanese Commander of Upper Perak. The problem was, however, that Colonel Fujiama had not been ordered to surrender and an uneasy truce lasted for the next two days, after which happily, the order to surrender came through and Colonel Fujiama yielded up his sword (which his family still has).

After the formal cessation of hostilities, Peter spent many months doing all he could to revive the war ravaged country. He used the funds given to fight the war to bank local traders. As a result the local economy recovered rapidly and he was able to claim that no funds were lost as a result. But with a country in turmoil, the home he built in ruins and his parents growing old in England, he returned to England in 1947 to be demobilised.

POST WAR

Over the years many Malaysians writing accounts of their history came to visit Peter for first hand knowledge of his role. In 1994 a book of his experiences was published by the Malaysian University Press. Peter returned twice to visit Malaya, once in 1989, with his wife Mary, as the Guest of Honour of the Government of Malaysia for their celebrations of the anniversary of independence. While there he was on television talking about his wartime experiences, he made a favourable impression by speaking in Malay after a break of nearly 50 years. He married twice and had three children.

In 1999 Peter was awarded the honour of Dato of the State of Perak (the equivalent of a Knighthood we were told) for his services to the people of Malaya, giving him the title of Dato’ Lt. Col. Peter Dobrée OBE DPMP. Unable to travel to Malaysia at this time, he was presented with this award at a ceremony at the Malaysian Embassy in London.