Incredible Burma campaign army officer with in links to the Harborough district dies aged 100

Tributes have been paid to an incredible army officer with links to the Harborough district, who has died aged 100.

The family of Lt Robin Rowland said they have always been "in awe" of the war hero who served his country with great bravery.

As a 22-year-old officer with the Punjab Regiment, Lt Robin Rowland spent several months repelling the Japanese advance into India from Burma, battling monsoon rains and what he described as "a ferocious enemy".

As the Fourteenth Army enjoyed continued success against the Japanese, the young lieutenant was promoted to captain and then, following the brutal battle for Kohima, to acting major.

A natural leader, Lt Rowland learned Urdu while in India and carried some almost surreal memories from that campaign along with the more harrowing.

He recently recalled leading a 100-strong mule train towards the Burmese border in 1944 when he began to hear music in the air.

As he got closer to the source, he encountered Vera Lynn serenading hundreds of troops in a jungle clearing - spending 15 minutes listening to We'll Meet Again and the White Cliffs of Dover before carrying on with his mission.

Born in Ballynure near Ballyclare in January 1922, the son of an army officer, Robin attended Ballyclare High School before beginning a law degree at Queen’s University.

After the war, he returned to his law studies and was called to the Northern Ireland Bar in 1949, becoming a QC in 1969 and eventually a County Court judge in 1974.

Judge Rowland and his family eventually relocated to south Leicestershire where he celebrated his 100th birthday in January 2022.

Two years earlier, as the nation marked the 75th anniversary of VJ Day (Victory over Japan), he spoke to the Harborough Mail from his home in a village near Market Harborough about his gruesome experience at Kohima, describing it as “the nearest I’ve come to hell".

However, the war also led to him meeting the love of his life, his wife Kay, he met while she was serving as a Queen Alexandra nurse in Kuala Lumpur. They married in 1952.

“I knew she was the one for me the first time I met her," he said.

“We had a long and happy marriage before Kay sadly died of cancer aged 70 on June 14, 1991.”

The couple had two sons, Peter and Andrew, who lives in Kibworth and was part of the Mail's interview with his father in 2020.

Andrew said: "It wasn't really until my mum died in 1991, when he saw an article in a magazine about a trip down the Irrawaddy [river], two years after the Myanmar (formerly Burma) government opened the borders, and noticed that there was an overnight stop at Pakokku where they crossed in 1944.

"And he wanted to go back to his battlefield. He wanted to go back to see the village that he'd mortared to see if it still existed, so I accompanied him back to Burma, and it was only then, in 1998, that he started talking about it. He and I then went to Kohima, and we went to India twice and to Burma three times. He always said the war defined him as a person and made him who he was.”

Former Harborough Mail reporter Red Williams has fond memories of meeting the Kohima veteran.

He said: "Robin was an incredibly down to earth man, very articulate, very erudite, very intelligent and had an incredible memory recall.

"He could talk about the war years as if it were yesterday and very matter of fact, even though he was talking about arguably the most brutal front of the entire war - in the Far East fighting the Japanese.

"In 42 years as a journalist, he was one of the most memorable and outstanding people I have ever interviewed.

"Once you'd met him, and talked to him, you would never forget him."

Read Red’s full interview here: Interview: 'It was the nearest I’ve come to hell' - war hero's emotional memories leave Harborough family in awe

Talking to Red in 2020, Lt Rowland described the horrors of war, saying: “It was the nearest I’ve come to hell."

But in all that hell, there were brief moments of sunshine.

Already knee deep into the Second World War, the British officer briefly paused from fighting the Japanese when he heard the one and only Vera Lynn singing to thousands of British and Empire troops.

“I can still remember listening to Vera as if it was yesterday. She put on such a wonderful performance.

“There’s no doubt at all about the tremendous effect she had on the morale of our lads,” said the extraordinary British Indian Army veteran.

“It was just incredible – and I’ll never forget it."

“It was just such an amazing moment, so utterly surreal.

“And it was such a dramatic contrast to the evil that many of us had experienced fighting Japanese forces.”

Asked if he regards himself as a hero, he said: “No, I don’t think so. I was determined to serve from the first day the war broke out.

It was the right thing to do and I’m pleased I did it.

“Serving our country out in India and Burma gave me terrific confidence.

“And that paid off in civil life after the war because I thought if I can come through this I can do anything."

Andrew said: “My dad’s generation is often described as our greatest generation and that’s spot on."

His Honour Judge Robert (Robin) Rowland was born on January 12, 1922. He died on November 9, 2022 aged 100.