Name
John Blomfield Dixon
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
NA
Biography
John Dixon was born in Ware in 1918. He had a sister Elinor and two brothers William and Richard. John went to St Peter's School, York and when he left in 1936 he started work in insurance in London. He also joined a territorial regiment The Westminster Dragoons, a light tank regiment.
When war with Germany broke out in 1939 John was posted as a 2nd Lieutenant to a line light tank regiment the East Riding Yeomanry based in Beverley Yorkshire. The regiment went to France on 1 May 1940 as part of the British army trying to help the French stop the invasion of France by Germany. John fought in a Bren gun carrier as part of the rearguard trying to keep the Germans from overrunning Dunkirk but was captured on 30 May after only four weeks in France. So John spent five years as a prisoner until 1945.
During that time he was interned in several different camps, continued to study for his insurance exams by correspondence course and participated in many theatrical events to entertain his fellow prisoners. He compiled extensive documentation of this whole period. After the defeat of Germany he was promoted to Captain and worked on the problems of displaced persons and the rebuilding of Europe. During this time he met a Polish lady, Leocardia Maria Janczek and they married in 1946 but had no children..
John returned to Robertson Urquhart insurance brokers continued his career there until 1969.
Acknowledgments
Allan & Mary ( J B Dixon’s nice ) McNab
