Derek Kinne, GC
Fusilier who won the George Cross after suffering beatings and a month living with rats in Korea
DEREK KINNE, who has died aged 87, was awarded the George Cross for his outstanding leadership and fortitude in maintaining the morale of his comrades after being taken prisoner in Korea in 1951.
In October 1950 China came into the Korean War and poured vast numbers of troops into north Korea. The following April, the 1st Battalion, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, was preparing to defend the crossings over the Imjin River from the low hills to the south. Their position was in the centre of the British 29th Independent Brigade Group’s defensive system and the key to that of the 3rd American Division. The battle ended on April 25 with a fighting withdrawal to the south, but Fusilier Kinne and a number of his comrades were cut off and taken prisoner.
Kinne had thrown up his job and volunteered for service in Korea to avenge his brother’s death in action and to honour a pact the brothers had made between them. He now had two objectives. First, to escape; and second, to raise the morale of his comrades by showing his contempt for his Communist captors and his scorn for the brutality and ill-treatment that they meted out to their prisoners.
Within 24 hours Kinne had succeeded in escaping, only to be recaptured when he was on the point of crossing through to the British lines. He was sent to join a column of prisoners, many of them wounded, who were to be marched some 250 miles northwards to Camp 1 at Chiang Son on the Yalu river. During the march, which lasted more than a month and was undertaken in conditions of great privation and without any medical attention for the wounded, Kinne’s spirit and bearing did much to lift the morale of his fellow prisoners.
Kinne soon gained a reputation for being a most uncooperative prisoner. In July 1952 he punched a Chinese officer who had struck him. For this he was beaten then made to stand on tiptoe with a running noose around his neck, which would have throttled him if he had tried to relax. He escaped again but was recaptured two days later. He was severely beaten and kept handcuffed in solitary confinement for 81 days. During part of this time he was locked up in a small, box-like cell in which he had to sit to attention all day. At the slightest hint of relaxation his guards beat him, kicked him or prodded him with bayonets.
The following month, after being made to stand to attention for seven hours, Kinne complained to the guard commander. Enraged, the man set about Kinne with the butt of his sub-machine gun but his weapon went off accidentally and he shot himself dead. Kinne was stripped, beaten and thrown into a ratinfested pit for a month, during which time he was frequently taken out and beaten into unconsciousness. The rats became his pets, Kinne said later, adding that they had helped to keep him sane.
In October Kinne was tried by a Chinese military court and sentenced to 12 months solitary confinement. It was increased to 18 months when he complained of not receiving medical attention for a double hernia that he incurred while doing physical training to improve his chance of escaping. In December he was transferred to a special penal company. His last sentence to solitary confinement was handed down in June 1953 for defying orders and wearing a rosette, made from prison rags, on Coronation Day.
The armistice was signed on July 27 and the repatriation of prisoners of war was due to be completed within 60 days. Kinne was threatened with exclusion from the scheme for demanding an interview with a visiting representative from the Red Cross.
Derek Kinne was eventually exchanged on August 10 1953 after two years and four months of captivity. He had been kept in seven different places of imprisonment, including a Korean high-security gaol, under conditions of extreme degradation and subject to great brutality, but he never lost the determination to resist.
“Every possible method, both physical and mental, was employed by his captors to break his spirit,” the citation for his George Cross stated. “He must have been fully aware that by flaunting his captors and showing his detestation of themselves and their methods he was risking his life. His powers of resistance and determination to oppose and fight the enemy was beyond praise.” Kinne was invested with the GC by the Queen on July 6 1954.
Derek Godfrey Kinne was born in Nottingham on January 11 1931, the son of a joiner. He was educated at Corpus Christi and St Charles School in Leeds. After completing his National Service he volunteered for service in Korea and joined the 1st Battalion, The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. His brother, Raymond, was killed in Korea while serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
Kinne left the Army in 1953 and started a mobile laundrette. In 1956 he emigrated to Canada to work in the construction industry. After moving to America in 1960, he established his own framing and laminating business at Tucson, Arizona. In retirement he continued to live in America, returning to England for reunions of the VC and GC Association.
Derek Kinne married, in 1959, Anne Boyle. She survives him with their son and daughter.
Derek Kinne, born January 11 1931, died February 6 2018