Flt Lt Anthon Sørensen

Flt Lt Anthon Sørensen worked for the East Asiatic Company in Pedang, when the Japanese attacked in December 1941. Shortly before the surrender in February 1942, he evacuated to India, initially, where he volunteered for the Royal Air Force. He served in South Africa.

Anthon Sørensen was born on 20 December 1916 in Silkeborg. He was the son of barber Ole Jensenius Sørensen and Christine Marie Sørensen (née Christensen). His mother died when he was only two years old.^[1] Sørensen worked for the East Asiatic Company before the war. In 1938, he was employed in the company’s Bangkok office. He transferred to the Penang office in 1940.^[2]

Sørensen left Malaya in early 1942. He seems to have travelled to India. He enlisted in Royal Air Force in India (771999).^[3] Malling’s service number as a non commissioned officer suggests that he enlisted in a group of volunteers that included another two Danes: later Flt Lt Anthon Sørensen and later Flt Lt Jørgen Kjeldbæk. Both were colleagues from the East Asiatic Company. Sørensen was promoted to Flight Lieutenant (145483)^[4] during the war and served in South Africa.^[5]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish registration, Silkeborg sogn.

[2] DNA: C. F. Schiöpffes Samling.

[3] NA: AIR 78/148.

[4] In the London Gazette an entry for Donald Finlayson gives his service number as 145483. This seems to be an error as it is otherwise given as 145488. There are no references to Anthon Sørensen in the gazette.

[5] DNA: C. F. Schiöpffes Samling.