Cocos Islands Mutiny

Cocos Islands mutiny

Date	May 8, 1942
Location	Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Result	British Victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Ceylonese Rebels

Commanders and leaders

Captain Gardiner

Gratien Fernando

Strength

26 men

6 Inch Guns

15 men
1 Bren light machine gun

Six-inch (152 mm) and nine-inch (227 mm) guns

Casualties and losses

1 KIA
1 WIA

3 executed for mutiny

26 men

15 men
1 Bren light machine gun

The Cocos Islands mutiny was a failed mutiny by Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) soldiers against British officers, on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on May 8, 1942, during the Second World War.

The mutineers were to seize control of the islands and disable the British garrison. It was claimed that the mutineers also planned to transfer the islands to the Empire of Japan. However, the mutiny was defeated after the Ceylonese failed to seize control of the islands. Many mutineers were punished, and the three ringleaders were executed; they were the only British Commonwealth servicemen to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.

Units belonging to the Ceylon Defence Force (CDF), including the Ceylon Garrison Artillery (CGA), the Ceylon Light Infantry (CLI) and the Ceylon Volunteer Medical Corps, were mobilised on 2 September 1939, the day before Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. The CGA was equipped with six-inch (152 mm) and nine-inch (227 mm) guns. Several of them were posted to the Seychelles and the Cocos Islands, accompanied by contingents of the CLI and the Medical Corps. The full contingent to Cocos Islands of the CDF was around 75 personnel and was under the command of Captain George Gardiner, an accountant of an export firm in Colombo at the outbreak of war, he had obtained an emergency war commission. Two six-inch guns were deployed on Horsburgh Island, Cocos Atoll, as well as a platoon of the King's African Rifles.

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