We regret to advise of the death of Dodson Arkkan Mah peacefully in the Burnaby General Hospital on 28 September 2006 at the age of 87 years.
Dodson was born in Nanaimo BC, a third generation Chinese-Canadian. He was a Second World War veteran who joined the Royal Canadian Engineers. He served with the British Army in England before deploying to Southeast Asia as part of Force 136, a Branch of the Special Operations Executive, for which he received the Burma Star for his service in Southeast Asia.
Force 136 operated behind Japanese lines in places like Malaya, Burma, and Thailand. Mah was trained in classic SOE tradecraft - sabotage and demolition, intelligence gathering, wireless communications, guerrilla coordination. He worked with local resistance groups, particularly Chinese anti-Japanese networks in Malaya, helping organize supply drops, relay intelligence to Allied command, and support guerrilla actions against Japanese forces.
Dodson was a member of Army, Navy and Air Force Veterans in Canada, Pacific Unit 280; the National Aboriginal Veterans Association; and Founding and Life Member of the Chinese Canadian Military Museum Society.
A celebration of life will be held on 6 October at Glenhaven Memorial Chapel, 1835 East Hastings Street, Vancouver BC, at 1:30PM. Donations may be made to the Burnaby General Hospital Foundation, 3935 Kincaid Street, BurnabyBC or the Canadian Cancer Society.{gdSep2016kh}