Roland Clinton Bacon Captain EC/9466 7th Battalion, Rajput Regiment, British Army Force 136, Special Operations Executive (SOE), March 28, 1904 Upper Nappan, Cumberland Co., Nova Scotia September 23, 1942 Dehra Dun, India 38 March 13, 1945 40 Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma (Myammar) 18. D. 18. Commemorated on page 616 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on December 30 Roland Clinton Bacon was the son of Robert Clinton (1879-1948) and Lillian May (Smith) Bacon (1882-1952), and the husband of Elizabeth Pearl (MacRae) Bacon (1908-1966), of Amherst, Nova Scotia. They were married on June 18, 1831 in Nappan Station, Cumberland co., NS. They had four children. Roland spent much of his life prior to WWII in classrooms as an academic. Capt. Bacon moved to Korea in 1931 with his wife, Elizabeth Pearl MacRae, prior to being assigned as a liaison officer in the British Army. Elizabeth was the daughter of Reverend Duncan MacRae, who went to Korea in 1898 as one of the first Canadian missionaries sent by the Presbyterian Church. Rev. MacRae and his wife spent more than 40 years in Korea to help establish the Presbyterian church and open several English schools in and around present-day North Korea. Roland taught boys at the English schools but was expelled by the ruling Japanese government in Korea in 1943. Instead of returning to Canada, he went to nearby India to serve in the war. Known for his exceptional grasp of the Korean language and culture. He initially enlisted with the 2nd Battalion of the Border Regiment in India. He was serving with Force 136 of the SOE, the Special Operations Executive from October 26, 1943, until his death in 1945. “His mission: psychological warfare. It is said this group of soldiers, assigned to an Indian Field Broadcasting Unit, would sneak up on Japanese troops with a radio and amplifier to broadcast grim news about Japanese forces to make them surrender. Capt. Bacon would also interrogate Japanese prisoners and interpret their maps and documents for the benefit of allied forces. During the Battle of Mandalay in 1945, Capt. Bacon and his team became trapped under heavy fire. In a bid to save his team, he climbed a tree to locate the source of the assault with a pair of binoculars. He was shot several times and fell to the ground. Two days later, on March 13, 1945, he died in a hospital north west of Mandalay. Capt. Bacon is buried at the Taukkyan War Cemetery in Myanmar (Burma), a cemetery dedicated to allied soldiers from the British Commonwealth.” Bacon with fellow soldiers from the Korean Liberation Army Unit (Elizabeth Pearl Bacon) Captain Roland Clinton Bacon is commemorated on the headstone of his wife, Elizabeth Pearl Bacon (née MacCrae) who is buried in the cemetery at Big Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. He is also commemorated on a War Memorial stain-glass window in the old Pine Hill Administration Building on the campus of the Atlantic School of Theology, Halifax, NS, and on the War Memorial Plaque at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick. On September 24, 2020, Captain Bacon’s son, Dr. Hugh Bacon, received the Order of Merit for National Foundation, posthumously awarded to his father by the Government of Korea.

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Bacon in uniform with his family in this undated photo (Elizabeth Pearl Bacon)