About Us
About the Burma Star Memorial Fund
The Burma Star Memorial Fund is a registered charity (number 1109753) and was established in 2005. It exists to allow the legacy of the Burma Star veterans to live on and to continue to be commemorated. The Memorial Fund focuses on the remembrance aspect of the Burma Campaign and will ensure that those who served in the Campaign will never be forgotten. It is connected to the Burma Star Association which was set up in 1951 to relieve hardship or distress among the men and women who served in HM and Allied Forces or the Nursing Services in the Burma Campaign of the 1939-1945 war or who were otherwise entitled to be holders of the Burma Star or Pacific Star with Burma clasp and for their widows, widowers or dependents.
The Memorial Fund runs a Burma Star Academic and Military Awards programme. The Burma Star award recipients study in fields related to the Burma Campaign. Our plan is to draw scholars from around the world who, like the 14th Army, are excited by the thought that the world can be a better place.
The Burma Star memorial grove at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire provides a tangible place for those who wish to reflect and remember Burma Star holders throughout the year. A service of remembrance is held at the Grove each year in May to commemorate those who died in the Burma campaign. Wreath laying ceremonies are also held by the Memorial Fund at the memorials to Lord Louis Mountbatten and Field Marshal Slim in September of each year in London.
About the Burma Star Medal
The Burma Star and the Pacific Star with Burma Clasp were alternative awards given during the Far Eastern campaign. Personnel who by their service qualified for both stars were awarded only the Campaign star for which they first qualified; they were however, given a clasp to show their entitlement to the second award.
The Burma Star was awarded for one day or more of operational service during the Burma Campaign between the 11th December 1941 and the 2nd September 1945.
Awarded for service between
The Burma Star medal ribbon has a red centre with dark blue, orange and dark blue edges. The red represents the Army & Commonwealth Forces, the dark blue bands represent British Naval Forces and the orange, the sun.
The Pacific Star medal ribbon has a yellow centre bounded by green each side representing the forests and beaches of the Pacific. To the left and right of the green are sky (Royal Air Force) and navy blue (Royal Navy & Merchant Navy) lines and the edges of the ribbon are in red (Army).
The basic medals issued to soldiers who served in Burma were the Burma Star, the 1939-45 Star, the Defence Medal and the Victory Medal.
The Memorial Fund's Annual Reports
The Burma Star Memorial Fund is a registered charity (number 1109753).
View the Memorial Fund's annual reports here .
Trustees
Chairman
The Viscount Slim
Mark Slim has spent over 30 years working in the commercial property industry based in the City of London. He is an Executive Director of CBRE and had his own practice for many years. He is also a Non Executive Director of Muntons PLC and Oakley Properties. He lives in Dorset with his wife, Hattie and 3 sons.
JM Archer Esq
After serving with The Devonshire and Dorset Regiment for ten years, Jeremy Archer retrained in sales at IBM (UK) Ltd before working for almost three decades in the City of London. A published military historian – with an MA in Research in Military History from the University of Buckingham – he has written a number of books on the subject. As well as his own Regiment and The Rifles, Jeremy is a Trustee of a number of military charities, including the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Service League, The Not-Forgotten Association, the Keep Military Museum and the Army Museums Ogilby Trust.
Rear Admiral CHT Clayton
Son of a Gurkha Officer and Burma Star recipient, Christopher Clayton served for 38 years in the Royal Navy. He spent seventeen years in the cockpit as a naval pilot followed by three commands at sea and a variety of staff appointments culminating as Director of Military Intelligence at NATO HQ in Brussels. On leaving the service he spent five years as Naval Adviser to BAE Systems. Now retired and farming rare breeds, he maintains an active interest in veteran affairs and became a Trustee of the Burma Star Memorial Fund in 2012.
Vikas Krishan
Vikas is a senior executive with more than 20 years of global experience in advising global organisations on large/ strategic deals, driving technology driven change and leads global business units for some of the world’s largest technology firms. He began his career as a banker and prior to this, enjoyed a dynamic, operational career as an infantry officer. He currently resides in London, with his wife and twins. Vik enjoys photography, history and most sports – including playing polo in Argentina!
Lieutenant Colonel Paul Corden
An infantry officer, Paul has served in the Army for over 45 years since starting at Sandhurst in September 1978, 36 as a Regular and on Full Time Reserve Service since late 2014. A passionate military historian, he has been involved with the Chindit Society since 2015, and went on a Chindit Battlefield Tour to Northern Burma in 2016. Now serving at the Defence Academy, Shrivenham, he continues to be a key member of the Chindit Society, organising key heritage and Remembrance events, including the wider Burma Star family. He became a Trustee of the Burma Star Memorial Fund in September 2023. In October 2023 he escorted Burma veteran Richard Day on a two-week Reconciliation Tour to Japan, conducting Acts of Remembrance in key cities and meeting a Hiroshima survivor, a Japanese Kohima veteran and descendants of other Burma combatants in the spirit of reconciliation.
Director
Director
Mark J A Cann
Mark for the past 20 years has been working in the charity sector, helping charities with their planning, events, governance and leading change. He is the Director of the Burma Star Memorial Foundation, The British Forces Foundation (a morale boosting charity for serving members of the Armed Forces) and ERS Foundation. He won the Charity Times ‘Principal of the Year’ award in 2009. Before that he was in the Army as a 17/21 Lancer then Queen’s Royal Lancer for 12 years. His service took him on operations to Belize, Mozambique, Bosnia, and Cyprus. He also served in India, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Canada and UK. He retired, declining a place at Staff College, a Major, having been an Operations Officer, Adjutant and Squadron Leader. He commanded D Squadron Royal Yeomanry for 18 months after retiring.
Mark is also a Director of CU2 Ltd (a successful ‘Events, Consultancy and PR’ company with a small property portfolio) and ChariAdmin Ltd (which supports charities).
Educated at Repton School, and Loughborough University (BA (Hon) in Politics and History).
Mark’s Who’s Who listing describes a passion for all sports especially Skiing, Polo and Tennis and that he is an, ‘enthusiastic but awful’ golfer. His other passions are collecting first edition political autobiographies, Karsh portrait photographs and first edition early twentieth century novels.
Mark is married to Emma a very talented equestrian and company director. They have a daughter, twin boys and live in Wiltshire.
