Page from the Summer 2026 Chindit Society newsletter:

New Chindit-Related Books

In June 2025, an enquiry on the WW2Talk forum asked for information about Gunner 11273725 Alfred Witcher who had served with 69 Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment in India. Amongst those who replied was the Society’s own historian, Steve Fogden, who was able, alongside other forum members to work out Alfred’s wartime and indeed Chindit service.

Alfred had been posted to 69 LAA in November 1943 after his arrival in India and was then assigned on the 10th February 1944 to X Troop, with the task of manning a battery of the 40mm BOFOR Anti-Aircraft guns situated at each of the four Chindit strongholds during Operation Thursday.

As are the vagaries of war, Alfred was suddenly re-posted to Z Troop and was due to fly into Burma (Aberdeen stronghold) aboard Dakota FL-540 on the 11th April, but in the end did not take this flight.

Fate had certainly intervened that day, as Dakota FL-540 crashed into the hills surrounding the Aberdeen stronghold, killing all but six of the 26 passengers and RAF crew aboard. This tragic story can be read in full within the Autumn 2025 edition of the Chindit Column.

After his great fortune on 11th April, Alfred Witcher (photographed below) continued his active service in India and Burma with 69 LAA until June 1945, when he was posted to the 85th Medium Regiment Royal Artillery, with whom he served up until his repatriation to the United Kingdom in May 1946.

The original search for information about Alfred’s WW2 pathway was instigated by book publisher, Jenny Knowles and wartime researcher, Shane McCormack on behalf of Alfred’s daughter, Heather Cooper, who was in the process of writing a book entitled Living in a Kenner, about her father’s and the Romani Gypsy community’s longtime association with the New Forest.

The book was launched at an event held at the New Forest Heritage Centre in Lyndhurst on the 11th April this year, exactly 82 years after Alfred’s fateful escape from boarding Dakota FL-540.

Author, Heather Cooper recalled:

‘My Dad grew up on Shave Green [compound] in the New Forest and went to war for over three years, serving in India and Burma.

After the war, Dad returned to Shave Green and built a new life together with my Mum, Harriet.

A few years later, the authorities started to move everyone out of the compounds. Mum and Dad, along with my older brothers and sister, were moved to a Nissen hut on Setley Plain, and then later to a house (a kenner) where I was born.

I’ve lived in caravans, a mobile home and a house with my husband, Burt.

We like to keep the traditional Romani ways alive and share them with others. This book is one way of doing that and I hope people will enjoy reading it and learning about our history.’

To buy the book click on: Living in a Kenner: My New Forest Romani Gypsy Family