Warrant Officer Class 2 Charles W Landon BEM
By the Regimental Secretary
Former 2054417 Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Charles William Landon BEM died
in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary on July 15th, aged 91. Charles first joined the Army
in 1937, in a Royal Engineer (Territorial Army) Searchlight Unit, but was quickly
discharged when it was discovered that he was in fact only 14 years old! He reenlisted in 1938, as a ‘Boy Soldier’, finally commencing Adult Service in 1941, with
the South Nottinghamshire Hussars (Royal Artillery). On D-Day, by then a Sergeant,
he landed on SWORD Beach, where he was part of an Artillery Observation Post in
support of 6th Airborne Division and then advancing doggedly through France,
Belgium and Holland towards Germany. In late 1944, many ‘Gunners’ below the
rank of Sergeant were automatically transferred to the Infantry with the more senior
Non-Commissioned ranks moving to Other Arms & Services and on January 6th
1945, he was one of 80 Artillery Warrant Officers and Sergeants who were sent to a
Holding Unit in Belgium for transfer to the Corps of Military Police (CMP). After 12weeks of intensive police and special duties training at an ad hoc training school set
up at Estaimbourg in Walloon, Charles and his fellow transferees were formed into
what was to become known as 241 (‘Sergeants’) Provost Company, based on the
Beach Company of the same number designation that had landed on SWORD
Beach on D-Day, but now tasked, in conjunction with Counter-Intelligence (CI) and
Field Security (FS) Sections of the Intelligence Corps, with the investigation of War
Crimes. The FS Sections were led by British officers, but the rank-and-file were
mainly of a German-Jewish origin who with CMP, conducted investigations and
interviewed War Criminals and those defined as either ‘Security Suspects’ or ‘Military
Government Offenders’. By mid-May, the Company had advanced to Lüneburg,
attached to 30 Corps with Sections variously stationed in Hannover, Celle,
Gottingen, Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Goslar and in Magdeburg until the Soviets
arrived. Due to the Unit's enquiries several people, convicted of War Crimes at
Military Tribunals, were sentenced to death and other investigations covered the full
range of crime including murder, blackmail, larceny, false representation and robbery
while CI tasks resulted in the apprehension of numerous Nazi Party officials. In total,
between May and October 1945, when the Company was stood down, no fewer than
1500 investigations had been conducted with over 780 individual arrests made.
Charles was then posted to 102 Provost Company at Dortmund and thence on to 87
Section Special Investigation Branch stationed at Iserlohn. His last posting in
Germany was with 2 Division Provost. Company at Krefeld. In March 1949, he was
sent to Malaya as a WO2 attached to the Malaya Regiment where he assisted in
organising the Provost elements of both the Regiment and of the Malaya Volunteer
Force. He was demobilised in 1951, having been awarded the BEM for his
pioneering work in Malaya, but with the encouragement of a former AssistantProvost-Marshal Major Bill Webb MBE, who at that time was Governor of Kuala
Lumpur Prison, Charles joined the Malayan Prison Service, rising to become
Governor of Taiping Prison in Perak, the oldest modern prison in Malaya. After
independence, Charles and his family returned to the UK where, after trying several
jobs, he became a publican landlord until he was laid low by ill-health. Charles was
an enthusiastic member of the West Yorkshire Branch RMPA, the Normandy
Veterans’ Association and the Royal British Legion and was a recipient of the
Legion’s Gold Badge. His wife Muriel predeceased him, as sadly did two of their
eight children. His funeral was held at Huddersfield Crematorium on July 27th with
members of the Branch and their Standard in attendance.