Cocos Islands Mutiny 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 . Background . 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 . The fall of Singapore and the subsequent sinking of " Prince of Wales " and " Repulse " did to British and Imperial forces what Pearl Harbor had to the America ns : compromised their ability to defend their interests north of Australia and east of India . The Japanese raids into the Indian Ocean , resulting in the loss of two cruisers and the aircraft carrier " Hermes " , threw Allied war plans in the entire Southwest Pacific Area into chaos . The feelings of the Sri Lankan troops had been excited by the work carried out by the pro - independence Lanka Sama Samaja Party ( LSSP ) , both before and during the war . They had volunteered to fight the racism of the Imperial Japanese but had found institutionalised racism in their own British Imperial regiments . Even the Burghers , who were of European ancestry , found themselves discriminated against . With the Japanese successes , public sentiment on Ceylon turned in favour of the Japanese ; encouraged by successful Japanese - trained and directed rebellions in Indonesia and support for Japanese forces in Thailand , Sinkiang and the Philippines , many Ceylonese hoped that the Japanese there too would serve as liberators . At this time a young J . R . Jayawardene , later to be President of Sri Lanka , held discussions with the Japanese with this aim in mind , however this was immediately stopped by D S Senanayake who would lead Ceylon to independence in 1948 . Mutiny . On the night of May 8 , 30 out of 56 personnel of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands mutinied , intending to hand the islands over to the Japanese . The plan was to arrest Captain Gardiner , the British Battery Commanding Officer and his deputy Lieutenant Stephens , to disarm the troops loyal to the British Empire , to turn the 6 - inch guns on the CLI troops on Direction Island , and to signal the Japanese on Christmas Island . ( The Japanese had occupied Christmas Island on 3 March 1942 ) . However , the soldiers all proved to be poor shots with small arms - one soldier , Gunner Samaris Jayasekera was killed and Lieutenant Stephens wounded by them . The rebels ' one Bren gun jammed at a crucial moment , when Gratien Fernando , the leader of the mutiny , had it trained on Gardiner . The rebels then attempted to turn the 6 - inch guns on Direction Island , but were overpowered . Messages sent by Fernando were received in Ceylon , indicating that there was co - operation between him and both the CLI troops and the Australian signalers on Direction Island , however none of them took part in the mutiny . The CLI helped to put down the mutineers . He declared he had surrendered on condition that he would be tried in Colombo — it may be that he intended to give a speech from the dock to inspire his compatriots . However , the 15 mutineers were court martialed on the Cocos Islands by Gardiner . Seven of the men who were found guilty were sentenced to death ; but four of these sentences were commuted to terms of imprisonment . Gunner Samaris Jayasekera was buried with full military honours on Horsburgh Island on the evening of May 10 and later reburied in Singapore ' s Kranji War Memorial . The condemned mutineers were shipped back to Ceylon and imprisoned at the military jail in Flagstaff Street and then at military detention barracks at Hulftsdorp . The families of the condemned appealed to Sir Oliver Goonetilleke , then Civil Defence Commissioner and a member of the War Council to save them , H . W . Amarasuriya and Susantha de Fonseka , members of the State Council , also made representations to the Governor Sir Andrew Caldecott and Admiral Geoffrey Layton , requesting clemency . However their pleas failed . Fernando was defiant to the end , confidently believing that he would be remembered as a patriot , and refused a commutation of punishment . He was executed on 5 August 1942 at Welikada Prison , and two other mutineers shortly thereafter . Fernando ' s last words were " Loyalty to a country under the heel of a white man is disloyalty " . Consequences . The three mutineers were the only British Commonwealth troops to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War . The CDF detachment in Cocos Islands returned just before Christmas 1942 , these veterans had their promotions suspended and denied the campaign medals for active war service . No Ceylonese combat regiment was deployed by the British in a combat situation after the Cocos Islands Mutiny , however support units were deployed most notably in North Africa . The defences of Ceylon were increased to three British army divisions because the island was strategically important , holding almost all the British Empire ' s resources of rubber that remained after the fall of Malaya . Rationing was instituted so that the Ceylonese were comparatively better fed than their Indian neighbours , in order to prevent disaffection among the natives . The LSSP ' s anti - colonial agitation now included references to the Cocos Islands Mutiny . Public disgust at British colonial rule continued to grow . Sir Oliver Ernest Goonetilleke , the Civil Defence Commissioner complained that the British commander of Ceylon , Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton called him a ' black bastard ' . Ceylonese in Singapore and Malaya formed the ' Lanka Regiment ' of the Indian National Army , directly under Subhas Chandra Bose . A plan was made to transport them to Sri Lanka by submarine , to lead a liberation struggle there , but this was aborted . The LSSP played a significant role in the post - independence politics of Ceylon , most notably by being a major coalition partner of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party government in 1970 . Ironically their spell in power was marked by a Marxist youth uprising against the government . This was followed by the decline of the party in the 1980s . Mutineers . The men who were convicted by court martial of mutiny were :