Living in Newick
Lance Corporal Jack Weston, 1st Bn Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales) was born on 10 February 1913 in Uckfield. The son of Ruth and George William Weston, a labourer from Hadlow Down, East Sussex, where Jack was baptised. Jack married Bertha Rita Bowden Biggs in East Hoathly on 23 December 1933. They had two children Sylvia and James.
Lance Corporal Jack Weston, lived at 1 Sharps Bridge, Piltdown at the time of his death.
Sharpsbridge
Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales)
During the 1881 reforms, a new county regiment for Berkshire was formed by merging the 49th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) (Hertfordshire) Regiment and the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment. These became the new unit's 1st and 2nd Battalions respectively.
The 1st Battalion was in Britain at the outbreak of the conflict. It deployed to France immediately, only to be evacuated from Dunkirk in June 1940. It joined 2nd Battalion in India in 1942 and for the rest of the war also fought in Burma. Both battalions won several honours in that theatre, including the Battles of Imphal and Kohima (1944).
The 2nd Battalion of The Royal Berkshire Regiment (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) was in India at the start of the war and spent 1939 to 1943 on internal security duties there. In January 1943 it was attached to 98th Indian Brigade. After undergoing jungle training it was sent to Asssam, arriving in the Autumn of 1944. It fought at Imphal-Kohima and then joined the advance into Burma, crossing the Chindwin in December and then winning battle honours for Kyaukmyaung Bridgehead, Mandalay, Fort Dufferin and Toungoo.
1st Bn Royal Berkshire Regiment - 1943
During January the battalion took up a position on the seashore north of Chittagong, avoiding Japanese air raids and practicing ‘Combined operations’. They moved to and spent February at Teknaf, situated on the Naf River. On the 1 March the battalion was again on active service when they were ordered to assault Donbaik with the rest of the 6th brigade. They arrived in the area of operations on the 5thand this was followed by a ten weeks campaign of the most trying kind in very difficult country. The attack commenced on the 18 March, but effectively failed after hard fighting. This was the start of what was to be another fighting withdrawal down the Arakan. From this point up to the 25 May they march, patrolled and fought under sustained Japanese attack.
Lance Corporal Jack Weston's death
Jack was fighting in Burma and 'Presumed Killed in Action' on 2 April 1943 aged 30. Originally reported on Casualty List No. 1130 as Missing 02/04/1943. Then 20 Dec 1945 on Casualty List No. 1941 reported 'Presumed Killed in Action'.
Lance Corporal Jack Weston Commemoration
Jack Weston was remembered on the Rangoon Memorial, Rangoon, East Yangon District, Yangon Region, Myanmar.
The Rangoon Memorial bears the names of almost 27,000 men of the Commonwealth land forces who died during the campaigns in Burma (now Myanmar) and who have no known grave.
