Biography
"Burma Jack" James Girsham was born in Bago
2,
Myanmar, formerly known as Pegu,
Burma, circa 1894 to a British father and Burmese mother. In 1886, about eight years prior
to his birth Britain had made Burma a province of India. Jack's father had a good job working
for the government as an accountant and his mother raised their family, which consisted
of two sisters, a brother and two older half-brothers from his mother's first marriage.
Growing up in Bago(Pegu) Jack had memories of a good life living with his parents in
a nice house, horseback riding, two-wheeled pony drawn carriage (trap
3)rides and
of trips to the market, which was often overflowing with people and many exciting trade
goods. His parents could afford servants but his mother did most of the cooking. In
addition to learning English, Jack's mother taught him Burmese and their Indian servants
taught him the Indian languages. He was also taught the Christian religion as both of his
parents were Christian. Bago(Pegu) was surrounded by jungle and this was where Jack first
hunted and learned to love the jungle.
In 1903 at the age of nine, Jack's father died. The family then
moved to Pyin U Lwin
2,
formerly known as Maymyo, where one of his older half-brothers was headmaster of a school.
During British rule, Maymyo served as the summer capitol of Burma/Myanmar due to its 3,539
foot (1,078 m) elevation above sea level which provided cooler summer air than the winter
capitol in Rangoon(Yangon
2).
In Pyin U Lwin(Maymyo), Jack attended school and further developed his passion for hunting
in the jungles around the city. There were also annual Maymyo Week celebrations when the
government was in town that Jack participated in including shooting contests. Jack
was good enough to shoot for the Upper Burma team against Lower Burma. He also liked
to play football(soccer) and was a very good amateur boxer to the point of considering
a professional career.
Jack's first job after completing school was in Rangoon
(Yangon), Myanmar's principal seaport,
working for the Customs Department of the Burmese government doing trade shipment inspections.
Then he moved on to the Forest Department of the Bombay
Burmah Trading Corporation for at least seven years as a manager of local
teak logging operations which
included using elephants
to harvest and transport the teak wood (Sample).
Jack Girsham's first marriage was in the 1930's to a young woman whose family
lived near his home in Pyin U Lwin(Maymyo). They had a son together. During this
time Jack was mostly away from home working timber operations with a small firm
operated by an Indian proprietor and later for a job with the Elephant
Control Division of the Burmese Game Department.
In 1937 Burma was separated from India but still within British colonial
rule and on July 7, 1937 Japan invaded China with the goal of achieving military,
political and economic control of China including control of its raw
materials, food and labor resources. Burma was not involved in the conflict
at this point and remained officially neutral but did supply some materials in
support of the Chinese Army by an overland route known as the
Burma Road from its major
port city of Yangon, then Burma's
capitol and called Rangoon. During this period life in Burma appears to have been
relatively normal with the average Burmese citizen not affected by the Japanese
fighting in China including Jack Girsham and his family.
All that changed in January 1942 when Japan invaded Burma/Myanmar with the
initial objective of capturing Yangon, Myanmar's principal seaport. Capturing
Yangon would close the overland supply route to the Chinese Army and provide
a major base of operations to defend Japanese gains on the West Coast of the
southeastern Asia peninsula.
Jack Girsham had just traveled to
Mawlamyine
2(Moulmein)
in southern Burma on assignment to examine local sawmill timber and classify
the best as war supplies for the Burmese army at the time of the Japanese
invasion. Moulmein was in the path of the Japanese army on its march to
Yangon and there he witnessed his first fighting of the war.
As Moulmein was evacuated Jack received instructions to continue his
timber classification work in northern Burma. The first thing he did as
he headed north was to stop in Maymyo with the intention of getting his
family safely evacuated to India. The plan was to drive to
Mandalay where
they could get a plane to India. However the Mandalay airfield had been
heavily bombed so he put them on a train to
Myitkyina where they
could catch an evacuation plane for women, children and old people to India.
On May 6, 1942 while waiting for a plane the Myitkyina airfield was attacked
by a Japanese fighter plane. Many people on the ground were killed including
Jack Girsham's then mother-in-law and sister-in-law. His wife, son and a
surviving sister-in-law became refugees and attempted to hike eighty-five
miles north to Sumprabum
and from there on to India. His wife, son and many of the refugees did not
survive the journey.
The rapid Japanese advance into Burma caused Burma to break up and Jack's
job classifying timber for Burmese army use to end. He became a refugee
himself and attempted to escape from Maymyo to India along with several
of his relatives including a brother-in-law, a niece, her sister and three
children. At Monywa most of
the group boarded a boat skippered by an old roommate of Jack's headed north
on the Chindwin River
to a road that led to Manipur, India and safety. Due to limited space Jack did
not get on the boat and continued on with other refugees eventually making it
to the Indian border and on to Calcutta(Kolkata).
While a refugee in Calcutta Jack was solicited to join the British Army
Northern Kachin Levies
as a second lieutenant to recruit, train and fight with volunteer
Kachin people
from northern Burma for hit-and-run operations against the Japanese army
in Burma. He was later promoted to Captain and picked up the nickname
"Captain Jack". While operating in Burma Jack was injured on a pangee
4,
a bamboo stick sharpened into a spike and placed in the ground at an angle
to impale whatever comes into contact with it. The injury was serious enough
to require treatment back in Calcutta. While getting treatment for his leg
Jack fractured his right knee in a football(soccer) game. This injury was
more severe and required treatment at St. Luke's Hospital in Chabua, India
and a five-month recovery spent at the military rest area in Shillong, India.
While at St. Luke's Hospital Jack was recruited to join an American
volunteer fighting force of approximately 3,000 men named the "5307th
Composite Unit(Provisional)", which became known as
"Merrill's
Marauders", operational in Burma from February to August 1944 under
the command of brigadier general
Frank Merrill.
Jack operated as a jungle guide and lead scout with a group of Burmese
Kachins for the Marauders.
While serving with the Marauders, Jack met
Ken
Stager, a trained ornithologist,
who was also serving with the Marauders. Not long after their meeting Colonel
Thomas T. Mackie
offered Ken Stager an ornithologist position to research
typhus, which was
carried by birds and animals and that was killing many soldiers in the jungles.
Ken recommended Jack join him as an expert in trapping and hunting birds and
animals in the upper Burma region and Jack was able to obtain a transfer.
Jack worked with Ken Stager for the remainder of World War II doing typhus
research for the American Typhus Commission.
After World War II Jack Girsham joined the Burmese army stationed mostly
in Pyin U Lwin(Maymyo), his hometown since 1903, and remained in their service
until 1949.
Burma achieved independence from British rule on January 4, 1948 and
Jack decided it was time to move on from his lifelong home of Burma. He
wanted to remain in the hunting business and ended up accepting a
hunting license in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, which is near
the Burma/Myanmar border. He worked as an independent contractor for
local officials and tea plantation owners hunting tigers that were attacking
people, usually older or injured tigers that could no longer successfully hunt
on their own and occasional rogue elephants that were damaging crops. He
also took people who had come to Assam to hunt big game animals on safari
hunts and did other miscellaneous assignments.
In the late 1940's Jack became engaged to his second wife, Charmaine,
who was living in Kolkata(Calcutta), India. After Jack received his hunting license
in Assam he and Charmaine were married. Charmaine continued to live in Kolkata,
where she had a job and Jack would fly down to spend time with her during
the hunting off season which typically ran from April to September.
In 1958 Lowell Thomas
met Jack Girsham when he came to India to film a "High Adventure" television
program about the wonders of India. Lowell was in Assam in northeastern India
to film the tea plantations in the prime tea growing Sonitpur District when a
tea planter entered the "High Adventure" camp inquiring if he could borrow an
elephant for a Tiger hunt. A Tiger had been attacking tea plantation workers
in the area and Jack Girsham had been hired to track down and kill this man-eating
Tiger. The Lowell Thomas High Adventure group supplied the elephant and asked
if Jack would agree to have the Tiger hunt filmed for the High Adventure program.
Jack agreed and appears in the High
Adventure India program that originally aired April 19, 1958 on CBS.
In August 1967 Jack Girsham and his wife Charmaine decided to move from Kolkata,
India to New Barnet, England just outside London and lived there until he passed
away in the mid 1980's. The primary source for this biography
was the auto biographical book Jack Girsham wrote titled Burma Jack
published in the United States in 1971 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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Book
List
Burma Jack - 1971, autobiography. With Lowell
Thomas.
(A True Story of Jungle Heroism and Adventure in War and Peace)
Television Appearance
High
Adventure with Lowell Thomas - CBS - Appeared as guide in India
on Tiger hunt with Lowell Thomas. Original Broadcast Date: April 19, 1958
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Links
The
Trip from Houston to Burma - Jack Girsham interview by Carl Hunt - circa mid to late
1970's - Badge and Gun
(Houston Police Officer's Union Publication).
Ken
Stager, 1915-2009 - Blog post about Ken Stager mentions his involvement
with Jack Girsham during World War II typhus research - Camera Trap Codger.
Northern Kachin Levies
Kachin Levies - Wikipedia.
Fort Hertz - Northern Kachin Levies Base Camp - Wikipedia.
USA Kachin Rangers
USA Kachin Rangers - OSS - 101 Association, Inc.
Merrill's Marauders (Official unit title "5307th Composite Unit
(Provisional)", operational Feb-Aug 1944)
Galahad:
Intelligence Aspects - Article mentions Jack Girsham's
activity with Galahad during World War II (Galahad was codename for US volunteer force,
otherwise known as Merrill's Marauders) - Central Intelligence Agency.
Ch.
5 Special Operations in the China-Burma-India Theater - Article about
United States activity in area during World War II - U.S.
Army Special Operations in World War II by David W. Hogan, Jr. at U.S.
Army Center of Military History.
Merrill's
Marauders - 25:44 min - Actual Film of Merrill's Marauders in action
in Burma from 1944 - YouTube.
Merrill's Magnificent Marauders - Part
1/5 10:23 min, Part
2/5 10:23 min, Part
3/5 10:23 min, Part
4/5 10:23 min, Part
5/5 10:21 min - Color and B&W documentary about Merrill's Marauders
action in Burma during 1944 with pre-World War II background information.
- Most Secret program - BBC Worldwide, Ltd. - 1998
Merrill's
Marauders - Film
Clip 1/2 6:38 min, Film
Clip 2/2 3:10 min - Movie starring Jeff
Chandler, Ty Hardin
and Claude Akins,
Warner Bros. 1962 (IMDb
Entry).
Merrill's
Marauders - National World War II Museum.
Merrill's
Marauders - Wikipedia.
Merrill's Marauders Association
- Website maintained by descendants, relatives and friends of the unit (Excellent Photo Archive).
Jack's Service Recommendation Letters
Col. Hunter Recommendation Letter for Girsham 26 July 1944.
Col. Easterbrook Recommendation Letter for Girsham 11 Nov 1944.
Col. Easterbrook Recommendation Letter for Girsham(2)10 Dec 1944.
Col. Osborne Commendation Letter of Girsham 21 Mar 1945.
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