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Killed in Action
Sherwood Foresters
1/5 Battalion
History
Compiled by Ron Taylor
Thailand-Burma Railway
From Fred Taylor (Private 5776807)
Working parties had increased, and on the 18th June my turn came, I was now feeling a lot better but the food and conditions at Changi were very bleak, rice and green leaves were our diet, the water had to be boiled and the sanitary conditions were terrible, so I was glad to get away. With a party of 600 others under the command of Major P.D. Weir of the 118 Field Regiment, RA, and Major M.T. Read, 196 Field Ambulance, R.A.M.C. both of the 18th Division. We were herded into cattle trucks and driven up Malaya and into Thailand.
Cattle trucks to Thailand
by Charles Thrale
After five days in those cattle trucks, which were very cold at night and stiflingly hot during the day, we were very grateful to arrive at Non Pladuk and were treated very well, the food was a lot better then at Changi. Our first job was to clear a large area of trees and put up our atapi shelters, we were told a Japanese workshop was to be built there, then word got around that it was to be the start of a railway line to go 415kms to Burma.

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Atapi Shelter
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Picture Supplied by Helen Elliott
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As the Jap engineers started to arrived a cook house was set up, Jimmy O'Conner was Divisional HQ cook and he asked me to volunteer with him to help the Jap cooks. We settled down to making manjou cakes for the Japs, we had to grind the rice into a kind of flour by hitting it with a mallet, soya beans were then given the same treatment, then water was added to the rice making a kind of dough, the soya beans were then added and the Japs ate these raw. Jimmy had the idea of baking them like we would buns, he talked the Japanese cook into trying this, and they were an immediate success. The Japanese cook's name was Otto, he took us under his wing making about 1,000 manjou cakes a day using Jimmy's recipe.
By October the now infamous Death Railway was under way and the guards now arriving were Koreans and Sikhs, they were a lot more sadistic then the Japs, being held under by the Japs for a long time, it was now their turn to serve out the punishment and this they did with gusto. A large bamboo cane was carried by the guards, this was nicknamed the 'bamboo interpreter', if they wanted to get the message across, you would feel it on the most sensitive parts of your body.
The railway tracks from Burma and Thailand were joined at Konkoita in October 1943.
The price paid 12,614 Allied deaths
Plus an estimated 80,000 Romusha (Native Labour) deaths.
Death Roll
Thailand-Burma Railway
Please click on the next to each date below to extend information
|
Died
|
Name
|
Service/No
|
 |
1942/07/01-1942/07/31
|
Whyatt, Arthur
|
4976013
|
 |
1942/09/01-1942/09/30
|
Gibbs, Reginald Walter
|
4619786
|
 |
1942/11/18
|
Dean, George Arthur
|
4976932
|
 |
1942/11/19
|
Parker, William Stanley
|
4750554
|
 |
1942/11/24
|
Gilbert, Leonard Charles
|
4756091
|
 |
1942/12/01-1942/12/31
|
Felton, George William
|
4756084
|
 |
1943/03/04
|
Jeffs, Henry James
|
4620617
|
 |
1943/03/16
|
Selby, Arthur
|
4982867
|
 |
1943/04/02
|
Rothwell, Albert
|
4981465
|
 |
1943/05/02
|
Banks, Frederick Charles
|
4620502
|
 |
1943/05/22
|
Cox, James Edward
|
4756062
|
 |
1943/05/22
|
Fairbrother, Leonard
|
4971523
|
 |
1943/05/23
|
Truman, Douglas
|
4978719
|
 |
1943/05/27
|
Clibbens, William Robert
|
4756057
|
 |
1943/05/29
|
Wootton, Sydney Lawrence
|
4981528
|
 |
1943/05/30
|
Markey, Fred Charles
|
4619678
|
 |
1943/06/01-1943/06/30
|
Stenton, Charles Reggie
|
4978022
|
 |
1943/06/02
|
Freeman, Reginald James
|
4756088
|
 |
1943/06/05
|
Ingle, George Robert
|
4984654
|
 |
1943/06/12
|
Clarke, Samuel Edward
|
4975341
|
 |
1943/06/12
|
Clifton, Thomas
|
4978782
|
 |
1943/06/12
|
Walker, Frederic George
|
4978687
|
 |
1943/06/19
|
Bennett, Frederick William
|
4756033
|
 |
1943/06/19
|
Haywood, James Frederick
|
4978012
|
 |
1943/06/23
|
Summers, John Henry
|
4756199
|
 |
1943/06/23
|
Phillips, William Benjamin
|
4976091
|
 |
1943/06/26
|
Brady, Percy John Alford
|
4620516
|
 |
1943/06/29
|
Woodward, Harry Charles
|
4971782
|
 |
1943/06/29
|
Thorpe, Roland
|
4978132
|
 |
1943/06/30
|
Wright, Donald Arthur
|
4981812
|
 |
1943/06/30
|
Wright, Joseph William
|
4981813
|
 |
1943/07/02
|
Atkin, Harold
|
4972390
|
 |
1943/07/10
|
Layton, John
|
4978521
|
 |
1943/07/11
|
Johnson, William Manifold
|
4977486
|
 |
1943/07/12
|
Plummer, George Henry
|
4978603
|
 |
1943/07/12
|
Krieger, Alfred
|
4750648
|
 |
1943/07/13
|
Eccleston, Thomas
|
4979476
|
 |
1943/07/14
|
Cardigan, Eugene
|
7932570
|
 |
1943/07/16
|
Walker, George
|
4981792
|
 |
1943/07/17
|
Duffield, John
|
4756078
|
 |
1943/07/18
|
Weaver, George William
|
4981452
|
 |
1943/07/18
|
Roden, Robert
|
4914222
|
 |
1943/07/20
|
Elliot, Henry Arthur
|
4753916
|
 |
1943/07/26
|
Gadsby, Arthur Gordon
|
4978066
|
 |
1943/07/27
|
Hayes, William George
|
4756110
|
 |
1943/07/29
|
Whittingham, Arthur Wilfred
|
4976028
|
 |
1943/07/31
|
Truman, Percy Edward
|
4981786
|
 |
1943/07/31
|
Parkin, John Albert Maurice
|
4754097
|
 |
1943/08/01
|
Carrington, Jack
|
4970089
|
 |
1943/08/01
|
Madin, William Arthur
|
4977726
|
 |
1943/08/04
|
Nettleton, Horace Wilkins
|
4620662
|
 |
1943/08/05
|
Benjamin, Aaron
|
4620510
|
 |
1943/08/05
|
Draper, Reginald
|
4978046
|
 |
1943/08/06
|
Brooks, John William Jobson
|
4975578
|
 |
1943/08/08
|
Milward, Thomas Henry
|
4965865
|
 |
1943/08/08
|
Williams, James William
|
4756259
|
 |
1943/08/13
|
Byron, Peter
|
4984548
|
 |
1943/08/14
|
Wise, Edward Walter
|
4756263
|
 |
1943/08/16
|
Dunne, Victor
|
5112680
|
 |
1943/08/17
|
Simonds, George Victor
|
4754022
|
 |
1943/08/20
|
Clare, Arthur
|
4981402
|
 |
1943/08/22
|
Hardwick, Reginald
|
4978047
|
 |
1943/08/23
|
Streader, Frederick James
|
4750775
|
 |
1943/08/25
|
Stevenson, John
|
4978385
|
 |
1943/08/25
|
Scattergood, William Henry
|
4978318
|
 |
1943/08/26
|
Beddoes, James
|
7903779
|
 |
1943/08/26
|
Cole-Bowers, Sidney
|
4976071
|
 |
1943/08/26
|
Mellows, Jack
|
4984663
|
 |
1943/08/27
|
Lockett, Ronald Lionel
|
4750938
|
 |
1943/08/28
|
Cripps, Walter Winston
|
4976588
|
 |
1943/08/29
|
Sadler, Arthur George
|
4978373
|
 |
1943/08/29
|
Denman, Wilfred
|
4976593
|
 |
1943/09/02
|
Taylor, James
|
4983167
|
 |
1943/09/02
|
Harvey, Harold Ernest
|
4978058
|
 |
1943/09/02
|
Melbourne, Walter
|
4976073
|
 |
1943/09/04
|
Woolley, Daniel Wilson
|
4978658
|
 |
1943/09/05
|
Whitbread, William Henry
|
4978001
|
 |
1943/09/05
|
Bartlett, Henry James
|
4756027
|
 |
1943/09/05
|
Brown, Kenneth William
|
4983484
|
 |
1943/09/06
|
Mosley, Thomas Henry
|
4973001
|
 |
1943/09/09
|
Reed, Albert Ernest
|
4756168
|
 |
1943/09/09
|
Dickens, Arthur Newell
|
4756075
|
 |
1943/09/09
|
Vickers, David
|
4977079
|
 |
1943/09/10
|
Palmer, William Edwin
|
4750578
|
 |
1943/09/18
|
Watson, Ernest
|
4756238
|
 |
1943/09/26
|
Fitchett, Edwin
|
4979486
|
 |
1943/09/26
|
Hall, Walter Leonard
|
4619445
|
 |
1943/10/01
|
Whittaker, Cyril Douglas
|
4978143
|
 |
1943/10/06
|
Bonser, Frank
|
4976584
|
 |
1943/10/06
|
Kemp, Albert Joseph
|
4756125
|
 |
1943/10/08
|
Blowers-Wright, Derrick
|
4619384
|
 |
1943/10/09
|
Verran, John Cecil
|
4756220
|
 |
1943/10/09
|
Ford, Walter Douglas
|
4978082
|
 |
1943/10/11
|
Bateman, James Walter
|
4756029
|
 |
1943/10/15
|
Cutbill, John Thomas
|
4756069
|
 |
1943/10/16
|
Hinks, Alfred Ernest
|
4977499
|
 |
1943/10/19
|
Swift, Francis Ernest
|
4978623
|
 |
1943/10/24
|
Harrison, Jack Verdun
|
4857664
|
 |
1943/10/25
|
Brownlow, Edward Lawrence (Ted)
|
4980213
|
 |
1943/10/27
|
Norris, George Albert
|
4620666
|
 |
1943/10/28
|
Roome, Wilfred Harry
|
4976327
|
 |
1943/10/29
|
Sellors, Frederick Allan
|
4983157
|
 |
1943/10/31
|
Williams, Leslie
|
4978083
|
 |
1943/11/09
|
Jephcote, John William
|
4976299
|
 |
1943/11/10
|
Fisher, Jack
|
4978067
|
 |
1943/11/11
|
Willson, Alfred Troop
|
85922
|
 |
1943/11/14
|
Wright, George Edward
|
4756272
|
 |
1943/11/15
|
Foster, Bertie Walter
|
4756085
|
 |
1943/11/15
|
Beard, Richard John
|
4756031
|
 |
1943/11/16
|
Radford, Lionel
|
4619539
|
 |
1943/11/17
|
Hardwick, George Alfred
|
4977090
|
 |
1943/11/23
|
Carter, Thomas Claude
|
4750034
|
 |
1943/11/25
|
Horobin, William
|
4972315
|
 |
1943/11/25
|
Hilton, Eric Bertrand
|
4982391
|
 |
1943/11/25
|
Parker, Samuel Charles
|
4978702
|
 |
1943/11/26
|
Ward, Harry
|
4979360
|
 |
1943/11/27
|
Kidger-Preston, Dennis
|
4983628
|
 |
1943/11/27
|
Woodhead, Kenneth Judson
|
4977553
|
 |
1943/11/28
|
Harris, Edward
|
4981659
|
 |
1943/11/30
|
Wilson, Albert Harold
|
4756260
|
 |
1943/12/01
|
Webb, Frederick Oliver
|
4756243
|
 |
1943/12/01-1943/12/31
|
Branstone, Robert Stephen
|
4620517
|
 |
1943/12/01-1943/12/31
|
Freshwater, Arthur David
|
4750560
|
 |
1943/12/05
|
Ludlam, Frederick William Harrison
|
4976302
|
 |
1943/12/10
|
Wright, George William
|
4756271
|
 |
1943/12/19
|
Meakin, Herbert
|
4983655
|
 |
1943/12/25
|
Holmes, William Keith
|
4978021
|
 |
1943/12/28
|
Witchlow, Arthur John Charles
|
4756264
|
 |
1944/01/05
|
Bryant, Frederick Thomas William
|
4750596
|
 |
1944/01/10
|
Crackles, Cecil Walter
|
4756063
|
 |
1944/01/20
|
Woodcock, William
|
4978334
|
 |
1944/01/20
|
Yeatman, Edward Arthur
|
4981787
|
 |
1944/01/21
|
Warner, Charles Arthur
|
4978074
|
 |
1944/02/06
|
Hill, Harry
|
4742247
|
 |
1944/02/13
|
Whitbread, Arthur
|
4982907
|
 |
1944/02/16
|
Brandon, John William
|
4756039
|
 |
1944/03/25
|
Spellacy, Robert
|
4984600
|
 |
1944/05/21
|
Barber, Reginald Stanley
|
4978013
|
 |
1944/05/22
|
Groves, Robert William Melville
|
4977548
|
 |
1944/06/22
|
Purland, Arthur
|
4756163
|
 |
1944/08/22
|
Brooks, James Henry
|
4980781
|
 |
1944/09/07
|
Shaw, Horace
|
4978064
|
 |
1944/09/07
|
Bunyan, Donald Hankins
|
4981054
|
 |
1944/11/13
|
Foulk, Randall
|
4976650
|
 |
1944/11/21
|
Whyman, Douglas Lawson
|
4975166
|
 |
1944/12/08
|
Weatherburn, Thomas Leslie
|
4756241
|
 |
1945/05/29
|
Raynor, Gordon
|
4978133
|
 |
1945/06/11
|
Vinten, Walter Stanley
|
4756221
|
 |
1945/06/13
|
Taft, Albert James
|
4981776
|
 |
1945/06/18
|
Palmer, Charles Henry
|
4976937
|
 |
1945/06/22
|
Hill, Edgar
|
4978148
|
 |
1945/07/31
|
Smith, Herbert
|
4971975
|
 |
1945/08/04
|
Lowe, George Wilfred
|
4976056
|
 |
1945/08/08
|
Turton, George
|
4978885
|
 |
1945/08/10
|
Stanley, Joseph
|
4574933
|
 |
1945/08/24
|
Marriott, Bertie
|
4967751
|
|
|