Ronald Bound – South Wales Borderers, 6th Battalion

Serjeant Ronald Bound – South Wales Borderers, 6^th Battalion

Birth and Family Background

Ronald Bound 

Ronald Bound was born in 1918 at Neath. He was the son of Harold Mitchell Bound and Martha Atkinson Foy, who were married in 1914.

1921  Census

The 1921 Census records the family residing at Baltre House, The Parade, Mumbles. The head of the household was Thomas Henry Foy (60), a Turf Commission Agent’s Clerk, employed by Messrs Bargoed & Williams. His wife Jane Atkinson Foy (60), born in Nottingham, undertook household duties. Also living in the household were their daughters Dorothy Gladys Foy (30), widowed and undertaking household duties, and Beryl Doreen Foy (14), employed as a Stationer and Newsagent’s Assistant by Mrs Ford. Their son-in-law Harold Mitchell Bound (36), born at Penclawdd, was recorded as a Milliner Hall Artist, working on his own account, and his wife Martha Atkinson Bound (32) undertook household duties. Their son, Ronald Bound, was aged three. Also present were two further grandchildren, Queenie Dorothy Ada Warner (10) and Thomas William Harold Warner (8), both attending school.

1939 Register

The 1939 Register records Martha A. Bound, undertaking unpaid domestic duties, and Ronald Bound, employed as a Chief Cinema Projectionist and Electrician, residing at 3 Westbourne Place.

Marriage

In 1942, Ronald Bound married Florence Hazell.

Military Service

Ronald Bound served in the British Army as a Serjeant with the South Wales Borderers, 6th Battalion.

On 5^th August 1944, the 6^th Battalion, South Wales Borderers, was engaged in active operations during the Burma Campaign of the Second World War, serving as part of the British Fourteenth Army. By this stage of the campaign, Allied forces were conducting sustained offensive and defensive operations against Japanese positions as they advanced through northern Burma, following the successful repulse of earlier Japanese offensives.

The battalion was involved in jungle warfare, operating in extremely difficult conditions marked by dense terrain, monsoon weather, disease, and severe supply difficulties. Infantry units frequently undertook patrols, defensive holding actions, and assaults on entrenched enemy positions, often under constant threat from ambush, artillery, and mortar fire. Casualties during this period were common, arising not only from direct combat but also from the harsh environmental conditions.

Men of the 6^th Battalion, South Wales Borderers who were killed during this phase of the fighting, including Serjeant Ronald Bound, are among those whose service contributed to the gradual Allied advance that would eventually lead to the liberation of Burma in 1945.

Death and Burial

Serjeant Ronald Bound was killed in action on 5^th August 1944 while serving in Myanmar (Burma).

He is buried at Taukkyan War Cemetery, Myanmar.