John Hirwaun Owen Thomas

Known as JH, his involvement in Auxiliary Units was mentioned in his obituary in his Royal College of Physicians Obituary. He had qualified as a doctor in 1940 and during the war worked as a General Practitioner at Whitland in Carmarthenshire. While Whitland had an Operational Patrol, JH doesn't appear on the nominal roll. However, elsewhere in the country, doctors were frequently chosen as members of the Special Duties network. It was common at this time for doctors to travel to see their patients and it was expected the Germans would allow this to continue after an invasion. No Special Duties Outstation is know in Whitland, but the exact locations are largely unknown in this area and none of the sub-outstations have been located.

He had been born in Pembrokeshire, his father being killed in 1918 while serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, so was brought up by his widowed mother Martha. He was reportedly keen on boxing, later teaching it young people in the area. In 1942 he married Enid Elizabeth Davies.

After the war he entered hospital medicine, training at Bath, Romford and Swansea. He was seconded as physician and medical adviser to the Government of the West Indies in 1959.  He returned to Wales in 1961 and was appointed as a geriatrician to Bridgend hospital in 1962. The hospital had developed from the Bridgend-Cowbridge Union workhouse and he wrote a history of this in 1995. He also spoke at the National Eisteddford on the subject of one of its founders.