7 December 1940 Officer Cadet, 141st Officer Cadet Training Unit, commissioned Second Lieutenant, Royal Engineers. Taken on strength No.3 Commando 9 April 1943.

 

His son Andrew adds "My father John Channon Erskine was an Australian mining engineer in London, before joining the Armed Forces. After the war he worked on the construction of the Pitlochry Hydro-Electric scheme before taking a position as Inspector of Mines in Nigeria. In the mid 1950s he returned to Australia initially to take up farming but left on appointment as Officer in Charge of the Australian Mawson expedition to Antarctica from 1967-68. On his return to Australia he took up engineering again and for many years up to his retirement worked with the Bureau of Mineral Resources in Canberra. He took great pride in his membership of the Commando and considered his service with the Commando and in Antarctica to be the high points of his career. He died aged 95 survived by his wife Betty (whom he met in Cambridge in 1944) and four children".