@Tom_Hovi if you are able to find it out I would be interested to know where the local drill halls or barracks that 118 Field Regiment were based.
OK, to answer your question @JorgeCosta 118 Field Regiment was a TA Regiment and when their War Diary commences on 23 August 1939, they were based at Lee Green TA Barracks as per your initial thoughts. After mobilisation on 1 Sept 1939, it was decided to move to Woolwich and as you can see from the attached photos, the initial elements marched from Lee Green to Woolwich on 2 September 1939. They were based at Cambridge Barracks in Frances Street, the entrance arch to which still survives today. Vic doesn’t appear in the 1939 Register, which suggests strongly that he was a TA Member and was already serving when the Register was taken in mid-September 1939 (if you were a civilian, you had to participate in the 1939 Register otherwise you weren’t issued with a Ration Card) so he must have been serving.
As the weekend goes on, I’ll post Vic’s full story and that of the Regiment.
@Tom_Hovi if you are able to find it out I would be interested to know where the local drill halls or barracks that 118 Field Regiment were based.
OK, to answer your question @JorgeCosta 118 Field Regiment was a TA Regiment and when their War Diary commences on 23 August 1939, they were based at Lee Green TA Barracks as per your initial thoughts. After mobilisation on 1 Sept 1939, it was decided to move to Woolwich and as you can see from the attached photos, the initial elements marched from Lee Green to Woolwich on 2 September 1939. They were based at Cambridge Barracks in Frances Street, the entrance arch to which still survives today. Vic doesn’t appear in the 1939 Register, which suggests strongly that he was a TA Member and was already serving when the Register was taken in mid-September 1939 (if you were a civilian, you had to participate in the 1939 Register otherwise you weren’t issued with a Ration Card) so he must have been serving.
As the weekend goes on, I’ll post Vic’s full story and that of the Regiment.
Hope this helps for a start - Steve.
@Tom_Hovi .Many thanks, this is very interesting stuff.I. e. How the mobilisation plan for the local area was conceived and that the Regiment was able to move to guard pre-determined VPs. I assume these are either "vulnerable points " or "vital points".
@Tom_Hovi if you are able to find it out I would be interested to know where the local drill halls or barracks that 118 Field Regiment were based.
OK, to answer your question @JorgeCosta 118 Field Regiment was a TA Regiment and when their War Diary commences on 23 August 1939, they were based at Lee Green TA Barracks as per your initial thoughts. After mobilisation on 1 Sept 1939, it was decided to move to Woolwich and as you can see from the attached photos, the initial elements marched from Lee Green to Woolwich on 2 September 1939. They were based at Cambridge Barracks in Frances Street, the entrance arch to which still survives today. Vic doesn’t appear in the 1939 Register, which suggests strongly that he was a TA Member and was already serving when the Register was taken in mid-September 1939 (if you were a civilian, you had to participate in the 1939 Register otherwise you weren’t issued with a Ration Card) so he must have been serving.
As the weekend goes on, I’ll post Vic’s full story and that of the Regiment.
Hope this helps for a start - Steve.
@Tom_Hovi .Many thanks, this is very interesting stuff.I. e. How the mobilisation plan for the local area was conceived and that the Regiment was able to move to guard pre-determined VPs. I assume these are either "vulnerable points " or "vital points".
Look forward to hearing more.
VP = Vulnerable Point. I photographed the War Diaries up to end November 1940. I stopped after then as my camera was running out of juice and I wanted to be sure of capturing the Nominal Roll and other Far East stuff. I’ll put some more up on here over the weekend and will also summarise their movements within the U.K. following their time at Woolwich and going forward onto anti-invasion duties. I’ll also put some of the Nominal Roll up from Changi which makes quite sobering reading at times.
This thread is awe inspiring, and in many aspects regarding the characters involved, those prepared to research and share, and those interested enough to read it is testament to our shared humanity. My own father served in Burma.
Just can’t get it how those so far away or infact fighting anywhere away from there family kept sane, in my fathers case he was I don’t know how many thousands of miles away, fighting for his life, but he knew his new wife and eventually his son, was involved in the blitz, (they lived in Dartford). To me that must be the worse thing, the not knowing if the love ones were still breathing or were buried somewhere. Such brave people, all that thought and infact lived through it, infact on any side.
OK, as promised I'm going to try and continue Vic Wilson's story based on what was found at the National Archives on Friday. To start with a run-down on the movements of 118 Field Regiment whilst based in the UK. The Regiment seems to have been armed at first with 18 pounders, then later a mixture of 18 pdrs., 4.5" howitzers and 25 pdrs, before gradually converting fully to 25 pdr by the time they went overseas:
23.08.1939 - 02.09.1939: Based at Lee Green (TA Barracks) - on 01.09 mobilised - reservists and TA called to full time duty. 02.09.1939 - 27.11.1939: Based at Cambridge Barracks, Woolwich Garrison - the advance party marched to Woolwich at 20:30 the previous evening, with the main body marching there at 18:00 on 2nd. 27.11.1939 - 04.12.1939: Ramsgate 04.12.1939 - 22.01.1940: Woolwich Garrison 22.01.1940 - 18.06.1940: Eastbourne 18.06.1940 - 30.06.1940: Holmwood, Surrey 30.06.1940 - 03.07.1940: East Wretham, Norfolk (anti invasion duties) 04.07.1940 - 31.08.1940: Taverham, Norwich (whilst here equipped with 75mm guns from USA.) 01.09.1940 - 30.12.1940: Worstead (from 12/12, 25 pdrs received and 75mm transferred to 902 Coast Defence Battery.) 01.01.1941 - 10.04.1941: Walkerburn, Scottish Borders (whilst here that training began with a view to deploying to a "Tropical Climate.") 11.04.1941 - 31.05.1941: Enville, Staffs 01.06.1941 - 22.09.1941: Shugborough Park, Staffs 23.09.1941 - 30.11.1941: Stone, Staffs
The War Diary finishes at this point and it can only be assumed that the next volume was destroyed prior to the surrender in Singapore on 15 February 1942. I've not yet been able to ascertain when they actually sailed from the UK and on which vessel. That is the next piece of research to do!
As can be imagined, the vast majority of the entries for a War Diary for a unit under training makes fairly mundane reading and there is a lot of it. I've attached those entries covering Woolwich Garrison and Ramsgate, up to the time of the move to Eastbourne, in case there is any local interest for people on here. If anyone wants to see any of the other extracts, PM me with an email address and I'm happy to share them.
The next post will deal with 118 Field Regiment's time in captivity and Vic's sad demise.
OK, as promised I'm going to try and continue Vic Wilson's story based on what was found at the National Archives on Friday. To start with a run-down on the movements of 118 Field Regiment whilst based in the UK. The Regiment seems to have been armed at first with 18 pounders, then later a mixture of 18 pdrs., 4.5" howitzers and 25 pdrs, before gradually converting fully to 25 pdr by the time they went overseas:
23.08.1939 - 02.09.1939: Based at Lee Green (TA Barracks) - on 01.09 mobilised - reservists and TA called to full time duty. 02.09.1939 - 27.11.1939: Based at Cambridge Barracks, Woolwich Garrison - the advance party marched to Woolwich at 20:30 the previous evening, with the main body marching there at 18:00 on 2nd. 27.11.1939 - 04.12.1939: Ramsgate 04.12.1939 - 22.01.1940: Woolwich Garrison 22.01.1940 - 18.06.1940: Eastbourne 18.06.1940 - 30.06.1940: Holmwood, Surrey 30.06.1940 - 03.07.1940: East Wretham, Norfolk (anti invasion duties) 04.07.1940 - 31.08.1940: Taverham, Norwich (whilst here equipped with 75mm guns from USA.) 01.09.1940 - 30.12.1940: Worstead (from 12/12, 25 pdrs received and 75mm transferred to 902 Coast Defence Battery.) 01.01.1941 - 10.04.1941: Walkerburn, Scottish Borders (whilst here that training began with a view to deploying to a "Tropical Climate.") 11.04.1941 - 31.05.1941: Enville, Staffs 01.06.1941 - 22.09.1941: Shugborough Park, Staffs 23.09.1941 - 31.10.1941 Stone, Staffs
The War Diary finishes at this point and it can only be assumed that the next volume was destroyed prior to the surrender in Singapore on 15 February 1942. I've not yet been able to ascertain when they actually sailed from the UK and on which vessel. That is the next piece of research to do!
As can be imagined, the vast majority of the entries for a War Diary for a unit under training makes fairly mundane reading and there is a lot of it. I've attached those entries covering Woolwich Garrison and Ramsgate, up to the time of the move to Eastbourne, in case there is any local interest for people on here. If anyone wants to see any of the other extracts, PM me with an email address and I'm happy to share them.
The next post will deal with 118 Field Regiment's time in captivity and Vic's sad demise.
That pint count keeps going up, amazing stuff once again
On 15 February 1942, the order to surrender was given and the vast majority of the men of 118 Field Regiment went into captivity. The majority of the men were at first imprisoned at Changi Jail, Singapore and indeed some were to stay here for the entire war. A brave few, who were undoubtedly lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, decided it was their duty to escape and the first attachment is a list of the escapees, all of whom appear to have made it back to India, after what must have been an epic journey, by 3 April 1943. I would be very interested to learn more of this and will post any details if I find them.
For those that remained in captivity, an attempt was made to keep a "Nominal Roll", some extracts of which I have also attached. Presumably, the Japanese allowed use of a typewriter to keep these records, although having now seen the original document, the paper seems to have been scrounged from whatever source was available. I think of all the documents I've ever inspected at Kew, or elsewhere, this is the most moving I have ever seen - I was literally shaking when I read it on Friday just thinking of what the guys were going through at the time. The first person I checked on was Gunner Albury, whose original account that mentioned Vic was what started this thread. He survived the war and came home to Sparta Street in Greenwich - I have attached the extract from the Roll that features him. Sadly, no such luck for Vic, he was one of those detailed to work on the Burma Railway and his death is reported on the next extract attached - died from Beri Beri on 27 July 1943 at Sonkrai, Thailand.
There are too many pages to scan and reproduce here but suffice to say, it makes heartbreaking reading - the main causes of death are diseases such as Beri Beri, Cholera, Amoebic Dysentary and Diarrhoea. I did notice some that were obviously killed by their guards, with cause of death given for example as "Fractured skull caused by rifle butts" and similar barbarity. No doubt the perpetrator lived a long and happy life thereafter. I've attached a few more sample pages from the Nominal Roll, some of which have the happy footnote "Safe in India" for the few escapees. As you can see from the few pages I've uploaded, many of the lads were local and there are many addresses in Greenwich, Peckham, Charlton, Croydon, Bromley, Eltham and right across South and Southeast London, as well as some from further afield.
I did a manual count of the Roll and by my calculations, of 744 Officers and Other Ranks that went into captivity, 188 died whilst POWs, a loss rate of 25.27%. This was a manual count, so it is quite possible that I missed some, or that more died subsequently and were unable to be recorded, as after all, this Roll was being maintained from Changi, whilst others were working in Burma and Thailand.
Hopefully, this information will be of interest - we'll never know if Vic was a Charlton fan, or if he was a football fan at all but he was a local lad, who truly did die in a foreign field. RIP, Vic.
Thanks for all the effort you have put into this Tom. I didn’t realise that Alfred Allbury was a local lad himself, not that that particularly matters. Gunner Allbury actually wrote a book in 1955 ‘Bamboo and Bushido’ an account of his time incarcerated, I’ve just sent off for it, and is perhaps where narrative in Bigbadbozman’s book came from. Why these stories resonate for me, is because they are just ordinary men, but because of the time that they lived, they become soldiers, a duty thankfully I didn’t have to undertake. RIP Vic
Thanks for all the effort you have put into this Tom. I didn’t realise that Alfred Allbury was a local lad himself, not that that particularly matters. Gunner Allbury actually wrote a book in 1955 ‘Bamboo and Bushido’ an account of his time incarcerated, I’ve just sent off for it, and is perhaps where narrative in Bigbadbozman’s book came from. Why these stories resonate for me, is because they are just ordinary men, but because of the time that they lived, they become soldiers, a duty thankfully I didn’t have to undertake. RIP Vic
Pleasure @HarryLime Like you, this story sort of resonated with me and because I now do this for a living (thanks to @SE7toSG3 for encouraging and mentoring me) I’ve been able to follow it up. I hadn’t realised that Alfred Allbury was local until I read the Nominal Roll but it now sort of makes sense why he was mates with Vic Wilson who also originated from Greenwich. Who knows, they might’ve been boyhood friends who joined the TA together.
On 15 February 1942, the order to surrender was given and the vast majority of the men of 118 Field Regiment went into captivity. The majority of the men were at first imprisoned at Changi Jail, Singapore and indeed some were to stay here for the entire war. A brave few, who were undoubtedly lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, decided it was their duty to escape and the first attachment is a list of the escapees, all of whom appear to have made it back to India, after what must have been an epic journey, by 3 April 1943. I would be very interested to learn more of this and will post any details if I find them.
For those that remained in captivity, an attempt was made to keep a "Nominal Roll", some extracts of which I have also attached. Presumably, the Japanese allowed use of a typewriter to keep these records, although having now seen the original document, the paper seems to have been scrounged from whatever source was available. I think of all the documents I've ever inspected at Kew, or elsewhere, this is the most moving I have ever seen - I was literally shaking when I read it on Friday just thinking of what the guys were going through at the time. The first person I checked on was Gunner Albury, whose original account that mentioned Vic was what started this thread. He survived the war and came home to Sparta Street in Greenwich - I have attached the extract from the Roll that features him. Sadly, no such luck for Vic, he was one of those detailed to work on the Burma Railway and his death is reported on the next extract attached - died from Beri Beri on 27 July 1943 at Sonkrai, Thailand.
There are too many pages to scan and reproduce here but suffice to say, it makes heartbreaking reading - the main causes of death are diseases such as Beri Beri, Cholera, Amoebic Dysentary and Diarrhoea. I did notice some that were obviously killed by their guards, with cause of death given for example as "Fractured skull caused by rifle butts" and similar barbarity. No doubt the perpetrator lived a long and happy life thereafter. I've attached a few more sample pages from the Nominal Roll, some of which have the happy footnote "Safe in India" for the few escapees. As you can see from the few pages I've uploaded, many of the lads were local and there are many addresses in Greenwich, Peckham, Charlton, Croydon, Bromley, Eltham and right across South and Southeast London, as well as some from further afield.
I did a manual count of the Roll and by my calculations, of 744 Officers and Other Ranks that went into captivity, 188 died whilst POWs, a loss rate of 25.27%. This was a manual count, so it is quite possible that I missed some, or that more died subsequently and were unable to be recorded, as after all, this Roll was being maintained from Changi, whilst others were working in Burma and Thailand.
Hopefully, this information will be of interest - we'll never know if Vic was a Charlton fan, or if he was a football fan at all but he was a local lad, who truly did die in a foreign field. RIP, Vic.
On 15 February 1942, the order to surrender was given and the vast majority of the men of 118 Field Regiment went into captivity. The majority of the men were at first imprisoned at Changi Jail, Singapore and indeed some were to stay here for the entire war. A brave few, who were undoubtedly lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, decided it was their duty to escape and the first attachment is a list of the escapees, all of whom appear to have made it back to India, after what must have been an epic journey, by 3 April 1943. I would be very interested to learn more of this and will post any details if I find them.
For those that remained in captivity, an attempt was made to keep a "Nominal Roll", some extracts of which I have also attached. Presumably, the Japanese allowed use of a typewriter to keep these records, although having now seen the original document, the paper seems to have been scrounged from whatever source was available. I think of all the documents I've ever inspected at Kew, or elsewhere, this is the most moving I have ever seen - I was literally shaking when I read it on Friday just thinking of what the guys were going through at the time. The first person I checked on was Gunner Albury, whose original account that mentioned Vic was what started this thread. He survived the war and came home to Sparta Street in Greenwich - I have attached the extract from the Roll that features him. Sadly, no such luck for Vic, he was one of those detailed to work on the Burma Railway and his death is reported on the next extract attached - died from Beri Beri on 27 July 1943 at Sonkrai, Thailand.
There are too many pages to scan and reproduce here but suffice to say, it makes heartbreaking reading - the main causes of death are diseases such as Beri Beri, Cholera, Amoebic Dysentary and Diarrhoea. I did notice some that were obviously killed by their guards, with cause of death given for example as "Fractured skull caused by rifle butts" and similar barbarity. No doubt the perpetrator lived a long and happy life thereafter. I've attached a few more sample pages from the Nominal Roll, some of which have the happy footnote "Safe in India" for the few escapees. As you can see from the few pages I've uploaded, many of the lads were local and there are many addresses in Greenwich, Peckham, Charlton, Croydon, Bromley, Eltham and right across South and Southeast London, as well as some from further afield.
I did a manual count of the Roll and by my calculations, of 744 Officers and Other Ranks that went into captivity, 188 died whilst POWs, a loss rate of 25.27%. This was a manual count, so it is quite possible that I missed some, or that more died subsequently and were unable to be recorded, as after all, this Roll was being maintained from Changi, whilst others were working in Burma and Thailand.
Hopefully, this information will be of interest - we'll never know if Vic was a Charlton fan, or if he was a football fan at all but he was a local lad, who truly did die in a foreign field. RIP, Vic.
@Tom_Hovi thanks for posting. For me as a former TA Gunner from Grove Park this is quite heartbreaking. Forty years later it could have been me and my mates. I never knew what my Regiment's predecessors went through. They were probably ordinary blokes like us who trained hard and stuck together through thick and thin. The casualty rate was awful for WW2. Some of the bland histories almost place the fall of Singapore on Regiments like 118 Field Regiment RA. But it seems that they fought hard.
The fall of Singapore was not the fault of the squaddies on the ground. There were strategic planning failures and Churchill's obsessions with maintaining the Empire which meant many lives were needlessly lost for political gestures. In truth Singapore was already lost before 118 Field Regiment landed.
I think @JorgeCosta that the RA did fight well in Singapore. I once spoke to a veteran who’d been in another RA battery out there and they’d fought to the last - 25 pdrs over open sights, so they took a few with them. I think it’s easy to be harsh on Churchill with this campaign. Could Singapore possibly have been defended? The leadership in Percival was poor and there was this pre-conceived idea that any assault would come from the sea. The air defences were also poor - Hurricanes and Spitfires couldn’t be made available at this time due to the situation in Europe and British naval air power wasn’t up to scratch at this time. Having said that, land forces properly deployed could’ve made a far better fist of things than they did. If they had held out longer, the Japanese were almost at the point of halting their attack - they were at the limit of their own supply lines too. If this attack had failed, we might have seen a similar situation to Malta with an outpost holding on but needing to be re-supplied by sea. Would’ve been difficult but not impossible. As it was, we know what happened and at the time, the Japanese advance was irresistible.
I think @JorgeCosta that the RA did fight well in Singapore. I once spoke to a veteran who’d been in another RA battery out there and they’d fought to the last - 25 pdrs over open sights, so they took a few with them. I think it’s easy to be harsh on Churchill with this campaign. Could Singapore possibly have been defended? The leadership in Percival was poor and there was this pre-conceived idea that any assault would come from the sea. The air defences were also poor - Hurricanes and Spitfires couldn’t be made available at this time due to the situation in Europe and British naval air power wasn’t up to scratch at this time. Having said that, land forces properly deployed could’ve made a far better fist of things than they did. If they had held out longer, the Japanese were almost at the point of halting their attack - they were at the limit of their own supply lines too. If this attack had failed, we might have seen a similar situation to Malta with an outpost holding on but needing to be re-supplied by sea. Would’ve been difficult but not impossible. As it was, we know what happened and at the time, the Japanese advance was irresistible.
I think Singapore was possibly our biggest humiliation of the war. Around 200,000 defenders, admittedly in a desperate situation but overwhelmingly outnumbered the faltering Japanese.
Similar to Crete in fact. Not the same numbers involved but the battle could have easily gone the other way too.
Alfred Allbury’s book came today, I’ve only had a quick glance at it, but a few interesting things already. Firstly they had been expecting and being trained for to fight Rommel in North Africa but with the entry of Japan into the war were sent to Singapore. @Tom_Hovi you said that you didn’t know which ship carried them, well we still don’t but, there is a brief account in the prologue:
“Behind us were a hotchpotch of memories. Halifax, Trinidad, then a leisurely zig-zag across the South Atlantic to Cape Town”
In Cape Town they had 8 weeks pay and 6 days to spend it. He tells of “drunk-wagons” running a shuttle service between the ships and the back streets. From there they went across the Indian Ocean to Bombay and then 200 miles in land to a British Army Hill Station at Ahmednager. Here they spent 3 weeks of exhausting training not in jungle warfare but in drills on the barrack square. Following this it was back to Bombay and a week later he and Vic were on one of three ships that entered Singapore. The account in the other book of @Bigbadbozman had been taken word for word from Aflred’s book and makes up a large part of the prologue. The 1st chapter concerns the early part of the occupation, there are a few amusing anecdotes, but at the end of it, Vic and Alfred are separated and never see each other again. They were in a prison camp in Towner Road and In September 42, Alfred had a severe fever and was covered in sweat sores and was sent back to Changi, in the sick lorry. Vic helped him in with his kit and convinced that Alfred had somehow engineered his sickness, waived him off with a grin and “I’ll be with you by the next truck”
There was a genuine friendship between the two, I can’t tell whether they knew much of each other before the conflict, Alfred was about 5 years older and I don’t think originally from the area, I think he was born more towards Borough/London Bridge way.
I’ll give the book a more thorough read over the next few days and update anything of interest.
Thanks for this @HarryLime as funnily enough, I was just going to post some detail of the convoy that took Vic, Alfred and the lads from 118 Field Regiment to Singapore and your snippet more or less confirms what I have managed to discover. They sailed from the Clyde on 30 October 1941 (which accounts for the War Diary ending on this day) as part of Convoy CT5 in one of the following troopships (it is almost impossible to pinpoint which one for sure) - ANDES, DUCHESS OF ATHOLL, DURBAN CASTLE, ORCADES, ORONSAY, REINA DEL PACIFICO, SOBIESKI and WARWICK CASTLE. These ships took them as far as Halifax, NS, where they arrived on 7 November 1941. The next stage is one of those extraordinary aspects of the war that one sometimes comes across, in so far that they were transferred to six American troop transports - extraordinary because this was a full 30 days before the entry of the USA into the war and yet here they were transporting British troops to Singapore to fight against an enemy who hadn't even entered the war at this point! The American ships were JOSEPH T DICKMAN, LEONARD WOOD, MOUNT VERNON, ORIZABA, WEST POINT and WAKEFIELD, which sailed from Halifax as Convoy WS12X (a British convoy designation) on 9 November 1941. The naval escort was also entirely US Navy and the convoy proceeded via Port of Spain to Cape Town, where they arrived on 9 December 1941. From this point, the naval escort was a mixed RN/USN affair and proceeded via Mombasa to Bombay, where the convoy arrived on 27 December 1941. At Bombay, the troops transferred to British ships and would have arrived in Singapore in mid January 1942, barely one month before the surrender.
Alfred Allbury came from Sparta Street, Greenwich (as shown on his entry on the 118 Field Regiment Nominal Roll) but not sure of his birthplace.
Vic's daughters name is Valerie and she was born in March 1940. Valerie married in December 1960 and as far as I can tell, she is still alive and living in the Blackheath area. I am minded to drop her a line and see if she has a photo of Vic that she could share and perhaps let us know whether her Dad was a Charlton supporter that she was aware of - bearing in mind that she probably won't remember him as she was only a bairn when her Dad went overseas. Vic's wife and Valerie's Mum, Violet, remarried in 1952 to a chap called Leo Pearce from Flaxton Road, Plumstead but later moved to Brockworth in Gloucestershire, where she passed away, I think in 2002/3. Sorry @Henry Irving the Bickley information I had was a false trail!
Thanks for this @HarryLime as funnily enough, I was just going to post some detail of the convoy that took Vic, Alfred and the lads from 118 Field Regiment to Singapore and your snippet more or less confirms what I have managed to discover. They sailed from the Clyde on 30 October 1941 (which accounts for the War Diary ending on this day) as part of Convoy CT5 in one of the following troopships (it is almost impossible to pinpoint which one for sure) - ANDES, DUCHESS OF ATHOLL, DURBAN CASTLE, ORCADES, ORONSAY, REINA DEL PACIFICO, SOBIESKI and WARWICK CASTLE. These ships took them as far as Halifax, NS, where they arrived on 7 November 1941. The next stage is one of those extraordinary aspects of the war that one sometimes comes across, in so far that they were transferred to six American troop transports - extraordinary because this was a full 30 days before the entry of the USA into the war and yet here they were transporting British troops to Singapore to fight against an enemy who hadn't even entered the war at this point! The American ships were JOSEPH T DICKMAN, LEONARD WOOD, MOUNT VERNON, ORIZABA, WEST POINT and WAKEFIELD, which sailed from Halifax as Convoy WS12X (a British convoy designation) on 9 November 1941. The naval escort was also entirely US Navy and the convoy proceeded via Port of Spain to Cape Town, where they arrived on 9 December 1941. From this point, the naval escort was a mixed RN/USN affair and proceeded via Mombasa to Bombay, where the convoy arrived on 27 December 1941. At Bombay, the troops transferred to British ships and would have arrived in Singapore in mid January 1941, barely one month before the surrender.
Alfred Allbury came from Sparta Street, Greenwich (as shown on his entry on the 118 Field Regiment Nominal Roll) but not sure of his birthplace.
Vic's daughters name is Valerie and she was born in March 1940. Valerie married in December 1960 and as far as I can tell, she is still alive and living in the Blackheath area. I am minded to drop her a line and see if she has a photo of Vic that she could share and perhaps let us know whether her Dad was a Charlton supporter that she was aware of - bearing in mind that she probably won't remember him as she was only a bairn when her Dad went overseas. Vic's wife and Valerie's Mum, Violet, remarried in 1952 to a chap called Leo Pearce from Flaxton Road, Plumstead but later moved to Brockworth in Gloucestershire, where she passed away, I think in 2002/3. Sorry @Henry Irving the Bickley information I had was a false trail!
I'll let you off this time @Tom_Hovi but I have another couple for you or anyone else
Harold Gee - Charlton Reserve in 1935 who was sold to Espanyol but had to come home when the Spanish Civil War broke out. Later was part of the first airborne and jumped into Arhhem in 1944. Played for Dartford after the war
Edgar Reeves. Another reserve who went to Espanyol but who then who disappears from history. Where did he go when he came home from Spain and did he serve in WW2?
I'll have a look and see what I can find @Henry Irving but always a bit of a long shot. Any idea roughly of how old they would've been when they played for the reserves?
Alfred Allbury came from Sparta Street, Greenwich (as shown on his entry on the 118 Field Regiment Nominal Roll) but not sure of his birthplace.
Vic's daughters name is Valerie and she was born in March 1940. Valerie married in December 1960 and as far as I can tell, she is still alive and living in the Blackheath area. I am minded to drop her a line and see if she has a photo of Vic that she could share and perhaps let us know whether her Dad was a Charlton supporter that she was aware of - bearing in mind that she probably won't remember him as she was only a bairn when her Dad went overseas. Vic's wife and Valerie's Mum, Violet, remarried in 1952 to a chap called Leo Pearce from Flaxton Road, Plumstead but later moved to Brockworth in Gloucestershire, where she passed away, I think in 2002/3.
It would be great if you could get a photo of Vic, I for one ain't bothered if he supported us or not, as Alfred pointed out he was an 'unprincipled rogue with a wry sense of humour' thats good enough for me. If I was stuck in some hell hole, he's just the sort of bloke you'd want to be with.
OK guys, as promised I wrote to Vic's daughter and I'm delighted to say that I have just spoken to her on the phone. Valerie Jacob (nee Wilson) is alive and well - a very young-sounding 78 and living in Blackheath. She was very touched to read my letter and was not aware of Alfred Allbury's book and his affectionate description of her Dad. She was also very moved by the interest shown in her Dad by the members of this forum and wanted me to pass her appreciation on to everyone.
In the scheme of things, not important but she did confirm that Vic was a Charlton fan (as told to her by her Mum), so very much one of our own and so this thread has a new relevance.
Obviously, she doesn't remember him at all, as Valerie was only a baby when he went overseas but her Mum would often tell Valerie that she was very much like him in character.
Valerie sent all of her family photos to her daughter, who now lives in Australia. She has promised to speak or write to her daughter to get a copy of a photo of Vic for me to share with you but seeing as Valerie doesn't do emails, this may take a little while. As soon as I receive it, I will post on here.
Thanks all for your interest and to @Bigbadbozman for starting this thread.
One thing I learned from this, I'd always wondered why in the local papers in SE London/Dartford etc there were always regular letter writers who would write in to complain about anything Japanese in the 70s or 80s linked to their treatment as POWs. I remember this being something I was aware of and people from other parts of the country weren't; but it makes a lot more sense now if it was a local regiment captured at Singapore, so the survivors were more likely to be found in SE London.
My father bought a Toyota when they were first imported in the 1960s and received quite a bit of war-related abuse for having a Japanese car. We lived in Orpington at that time.
Re the buying of Japanese stuff, my father didn’t allow anything Japanese to be bought or brought into the house, i wanted a Shiko watch for my 21st, i got a Timex one. As i said previously he was a gentle man, yes a man mountain, but oh so gentle, he went up and protested outside Buckingham palace when the Japanese emperor came over in the 60/70’s, got himself arrested but was let off as the coppers thought he had a point.
Comments
As the weekend goes on, I’ll post Vic’s full story and that of the Regiment.
Hope this helps for a start - Steve.
Look forward to hearing more.
My own father served in Burma.
23.08.1939 - 02.09.1939: Based at Lee Green (TA Barracks) - on 01.09 mobilised - reservists and TA called to full time duty.
02.09.1939 - 27.11.1939: Based at Cambridge Barracks, Woolwich Garrison - the advance party marched to Woolwich at 20:30 the previous evening, with the main body marching there at 18:00 on 2nd.
27.11.1939 - 04.12.1939: Ramsgate
04.12.1939 - 22.01.1940: Woolwich Garrison
22.01.1940 - 18.06.1940: Eastbourne
18.06.1940 - 30.06.1940: Holmwood, Surrey
30.06.1940 - 03.07.1940: East Wretham, Norfolk (anti invasion duties)
04.07.1940 - 31.08.1940: Taverham, Norwich (whilst here equipped with 75mm guns from USA.)
01.09.1940 - 30.12.1940: Worstead (from 12/12, 25 pdrs received and 75mm transferred to 902 Coast Defence Battery.)
01.01.1941 - 10.04.1941: Walkerburn, Scottish Borders (whilst here that training began with a view to deploying to a "Tropical Climate.")
11.04.1941 - 31.05.1941: Enville, Staffs
01.06.1941 - 22.09.1941: Shugborough Park, Staffs
23.09.1941 - 30.11.1941: Stone, Staffs
The War Diary finishes at this point and it can only be assumed that the next volume was destroyed prior to the surrender in Singapore on 15 February 1942. I've not yet been able to ascertain when they actually sailed from the UK and on which vessel. That is the next piece of research to do!
As can be imagined, the vast majority of the entries for a War Diary for a unit under training makes fairly mundane reading and there is a lot of it. I've attached those entries covering Woolwich Garrison and Ramsgate, up to the time of the move to Eastbourne, in case there is any local interest for people on here. If anyone wants to see any of the other extracts, PM me with an email address and I'm happy to share them.
The next post will deal with 118 Field Regiment's time in captivity and Vic's sad demise.
For those that remained in captivity, an attempt was made to keep a "Nominal Roll", some extracts of which I have also attached. Presumably, the Japanese allowed use of a typewriter to keep these records, although having now seen the original document, the paper seems to have been scrounged from whatever source was available. I think of all the documents I've ever inspected at Kew, or elsewhere, this is the most moving I have ever seen - I was literally shaking when I read it on Friday just thinking of what the guys were going through at the time. The first person I checked on was Gunner Albury, whose original account that mentioned Vic was what started this thread. He survived the war and came home to Sparta Street in Greenwich - I have attached the extract from the Roll that features him. Sadly, no such luck for Vic, he was one of those detailed to work on the Burma Railway and his death is reported on the next extract attached - died from Beri Beri on 27 July 1943 at Sonkrai, Thailand.
There are too many pages to scan and reproduce here but suffice to say, it makes heartbreaking reading - the main causes of death are diseases such as Beri Beri, Cholera, Amoebic Dysentary and Diarrhoea. I did notice some that were obviously killed by their guards, with cause of death given for example as "Fractured skull caused by rifle butts" and similar barbarity. No doubt the perpetrator lived a long and happy life thereafter. I've attached a few more sample pages from the Nominal Roll, some of which have the happy footnote "Safe in India" for the few escapees. As you can see from the few pages I've uploaded, many of the lads were local and there are many addresses in Greenwich, Peckham, Charlton, Croydon, Bromley, Eltham and right across South and Southeast London, as well as some from further afield.
I did a manual count of the Roll and by my calculations, of 744 Officers and Other Ranks that went into captivity, 188 died whilst POWs, a loss rate of 25.27%. This was a manual count, so it is quite possible that I missed some, or that more died subsequently and were unable to be recorded, as after all, this Roll was being maintained from Changi, whilst others were working in Burma and Thailand.
Hopefully, this information will be of interest - we'll never know if Vic was a Charlton fan, or if he was a football fan at all but he was a local lad, who truly did die in a foreign field. RIP, Vic.
Why these stories resonate for me, is because they are just ordinary men, but because of the time that they lived, they become soldiers, a duty thankfully I didn’t have to undertake.
RIP Vic
The fall of Singapore was not the fault of the squaddies on the ground. There were strategic planning failures and Churchill's obsessions with maintaining the Empire which meant many lives were needlessly lost for political gestures. In truth Singapore was already lost before 118 Field Regiment landed.
Similar to Crete in fact. Not the same numbers involved but the battle could have easily gone the other way too.
“Behind us were a hotchpotch of memories. Halifax, Trinidad, then a leisurely zig-zag across the South Atlantic to Cape Town”
In Cape Town they had 8 weeks pay and 6 days to spend it. He tells of “drunk-wagons” running a shuttle service between the ships and the back streets. From there they went across the Indian Ocean to Bombay and then 200 miles in land to a British Army Hill Station at Ahmednager. Here they spent 3 weeks of exhausting training not in jungle warfare but in drills on the barrack square. Following this it was back to Bombay and a week later he and Vic were on one of three ships that entered Singapore.
The account in the other book of @Bigbadbozman had been taken word for word from Aflred’s book and makes up a large part of the prologue. The 1st chapter concerns the early part of the occupation, there are a few amusing anecdotes, but at the end of it, Vic and Alfred are separated and never see each other again. They were in a prison camp in Towner Road and In September 42, Alfred had a severe fever and was covered in sweat sores and was sent back to Changi, in the sick lorry. Vic helped him in with his kit and convinced that Alfred had somehow engineered his sickness, waived him off with a grin and “I’ll be with you by the next truck”
There was a genuine friendship between the two, I can’t tell whether they knew much of each other before the conflict, Alfred was about 5 years older and I don’t think originally from the area, I think he was born more towards Borough/London Bridge way.
I’ll give the book a more thorough read over the next few days and update anything of interest.
Alfred Allbury came from Sparta Street, Greenwich (as shown on his entry on the 118 Field Regiment Nominal Roll) but not sure of his birthplace.
Vic's daughters name is Valerie and she was born in March 1940. Valerie married in December 1960 and as far as I can tell, she is still alive and living in the Blackheath area. I am minded to drop her a line and see if she has a photo of Vic that she could share and perhaps let us know whether her Dad was a Charlton supporter that she was aware of - bearing in mind that she probably won't remember him as she was only a bairn when her Dad went overseas. Vic's wife and Valerie's Mum, Violet, remarried in 1952 to a chap called Leo Pearce from Flaxton Road, Plumstead but later moved to Brockworth in Gloucestershire, where she passed away, I think in 2002/3. Sorry @Henry Irving the Bickley information I had was a false trail!
Harold Gee - Charlton Reserve in 1935 who was sold to Espanyol but had to come home when the Spanish Civil War broke out. Later was part of the first airborne and jumped into Arhhem in 1944. Played for Dartford after the war
Edgar Reeves. Another reserve who went to Espanyol but who then who disappears from history. Where did he go when he came home from Spain and did he serve in WW2?
Gee was born 9 September 1915 in Dartford and we know a fair bit about him already but next to nothing about Reeves.
I'd guess Reeves was a similar age to Gee and likely to be local to Charlton but other than that nothing has turn up so far.
Will check the museum records on Saturday.
In the scheme of things, not important but she did confirm that Vic was a Charlton fan (as told to her by her Mum), so very much one of our own and so this thread has a new relevance.
Obviously, she doesn't remember him at all, as Valerie was only a baby when he went overseas but her Mum would often tell Valerie that she was very much like him in character.
Valerie sent all of her family photos to her daughter, who now lives in Australia. She has promised to speak or write to her daughter to get a copy of a photo of Vic for me to share with you but seeing as Valerie doesn't do emails, this may take a little while. As soon as I receive it, I will post on here.
Thanks all for your interest and to @Bigbadbozman for starting this thread.
One thing I learned from this, I'd always wondered why in the local papers in SE London/Dartford etc there were always regular letter writers who would write in to complain about anything Japanese in the 70s or 80s linked to their treatment as POWs. I remember this being something I was aware of and people from other parts of the country weren't; but it makes a lot more sense now if it was a local regiment captured at Singapore, so the survivors were more likely to be found in SE London.
One of the best 'non sports related' threads I've ever seen on here.
Great to know he was one of us.
Great work Steve
Re the buying of Japanese stuff, my father didn’t allow anything Japanese to be bought or brought into the house, i wanted a Shiko watch for my 21st, i got a Timex one. As i said previously he was a gentle man, yes a man mountain, but oh so gentle, he went up and protested outside Buckingham palace when the Japanese emperor came over in the 60/70’s, got himself arrested but was let off as the coppers thought he had a point.