Page 34 - BBHAC Winter 2017-18 Gazette

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Fergus Anckorn

10.12.1918 – 22.3.2018

extremely trying circumstanc- Then while driving a lorry to
For anyone who read about es and as an accomplished collect a Gun a day or so later
this man in issue 546/121 in magician. He was a member of he was bombed and shot at and
the Summer 2011, this was a the Magic Circle for 81 years received some dreadful injuries.
story that touches you on all and was also an amateur artist. He still has a bullet from this
levels and proves that we are not Fergus was born in Sevenoaks attack in his knee. He was also
just an athletics club but a true on 10 December 1918 and went carrying a live shell which ex-
fraternity of highly diverse and to Tonbridge School. ploded and amazingly did him
talented individuals with some no damage. However, he was
extraordinary stories to tell. This In World War Two he was left for dead and a fellow soldier
story will encourage and give hope trained as a Gunner and went took his tags and he was then
to any who have known despair, on to gain several awards and reported ‘missing presumed
and reveals a man who would decorations but never achieved
be stronger the than tribulations officer rank. His posting was dead’. He counts himself very
that being others down. to serve in the theatre of war lucky to be alive and it seems
now developing in the Far East he was left for dead on more
This was a most remarkable in 1942. Via Canada and the than one occasion. His parents
were even informed that he was
member of Blackheath Harriers USA and many other places he ‘missing presumed dead’. He
whose story represents the was at sea for three and a half got engaged just before the War
triumph of the human spirit in months en route to Singapore. and says that his fiancée turned
conditions of complete adver- He was on an American Ship down 5 offers of marriage while
sity and despair. He survived about a week prior to the fall of he was away. After the War he
death and injury by means Singapore and apparently it was met up with the guy who had
which some might attribute to fatal that there were extremely taken these tags and this ex-col-
miracle or magic, to pursue a few English servicemen on league really thought he was
multi faceted life in which the Singapore. Thus he and his seeing a ghost and almost died
practice of magic would be a battalion were left like sacrificial of a heart attack himself.
not just dominating force but a lambs just a few days before the
purpose for living. Japanese captured Singapore. Over the next few days or
He was a life member of the 80% of the Allied troops in maybe weeks he drifted in and
out of consciousness but recalls
Singapore were killed.
club who joined that Club on being under fire while being
4 October 1954. As a runner He was to experience several taken to hospital. The Japanese
he claimed to have run 45,000 close escapes. The day after his had taken over the Hospital but
miles in the years between 1951 arrival he was with 9 others killed the doctors, nurses and
and 1980 which works out at in the Docks when they were patients before departing. They
about 30 miles a week. He re- bombed. 6 managed to get into used bayonets but didn’t attack
called the names of Alan Brent, the shelter. He and three others, him as he was bleeding so pro-
Jack Braughton, Sydney Wood- for whom there was no room in fusely that they either thought
erson and Tony Weeks-Pearson. the shelter, dived into the Sea, he was dead or that they had
Living in Westerham for many passing a sign that said “Dan- already seen to him. A further
years he mentioned pacing 1948 ger, Sharks”. When they got out lucky escape. He then recalls
Olympian Braughton in an of the water after the attack, the the peace and quiet in a Girls
event in Westerham on his bike. shelter had received a direct hit
and all 6 inside had been killed. School before being taken to a
He will however be remem- His first escape! POW camp in which there were
bered for his wartime expe- 150,000 prisoners. It took him
riences, a tale of survival in two days crawling on all fours