On 19th November the journey continued onward, crossing the Equator eastwards towards Cape Town in South Africa. The Royal cipher is placed at the centre, and the whole medal is suspended from a 38mm wide purple ribbon by a plain silver suspender. On 14th January 1942, having regained fitness with all the route marches, training exercises and sport after the long sea trip from England, they departed Ahmadnagar and rejoined their ship at Bombay the next day. Men from the two battalions suffered great hardship as POWs and were forced to participate in the construction of the Burma Railway. Members of the 2nd Battalion eligible for the 1914 Star (Y1/168q) In the absence of any kind of furniture we all searched around in order to find anything that would help to make the place more habitable. With his piece of round teak and array of tools he began to secretly carve his piece of wood into the insignia of his regiment -The 5th Suffolks. It was so obvious at this time that the troops on the ground, the infantrymen, were getting no support at all from mechanised units. [35], The regiment was amalgamated with the Royal Norfolk Regiment to form the 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk) in 1959. As a result, being thoroughly confused and disheartened, they disposed of rifles, machine guns, small arms ammunition and grenades by dropping them in the malarial drains and amongst the mangroves. When the allies reoccupied Singapore and Malaya in 1945 the hunt began by Allied investigators to identify and bring to trial the Japanese perpetrators of this and many other similar atrocities which the Japanese committed against the Chinese.). But they were unable to completely stop their activities. Lt CG Gardner, Queens Westminster Rifles and 9th Battalion: France 1914-1916 (Y1/466) Thought the presentation & interpretation made the subject accessible". Pte F Chivers: typescript account of My D-Day (Y1/607), Brig WC Deller: taped reminiscences of service in Palestine (1947-1948) (Y1/407) The Volunteer Force List, January 1918 (Y1/72c) is the equivalent to the Army List for officers in the home defence Volunteer movement. Donate to COFEPOW instantly - simply click on the button below. We were all naturally ashamed and disgusted, although knowing that from the very outset, we had lacked the necessary support". Eventually the ship moved out of Singapore heading East and then North, with most of the men under the impression that their destination was Japan but on the 8th February 1945, the ship docked at Saigon, Indo-China where Ken remained for the duration of his captivity. He was commissioned into the Territorial Force in 1915 and served in WWI in 5th Bn (TF), The Suffolk Regiment, throughout the Palestine Campaign. [25] The 1/5th Battalion landed at Suvla Bay as part of the 163rd (1/1st Norfolk and Suffolk) Brigade in the 54th (East Anglian) Division in August 1915; it was evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915 and moved to Egypt and saw action again at First Battle of Gaza in March 1917. Watch as the Suffolk Regiment are welcomed back to Ipswich on their return from Malaya in 1953 . As the convoy approached Singapore in line through the narrow Banka Straits, a single Japanese plane attacked unsuccessfully, its bombs surprisingly missing what appeared to be an easy target of some twelve ships. Catalogue description THE SUFFOLK REGIMENT, 1685-1959 This record is held by Suffolk Archives - Bury St Edmunds Branch See contact details Have you found an error with this catalogue. Medal roll, Afghan campaign (1st Battalion), 1880 (B5/2) Pte T Scott, Reserve Battalion: South Africa, Scotland 1851-1859 (Y1/232) (Partly published in PB Boyden, The British Army in Cape Colony, Society for Army Historical Research, 2001) With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the command reinforced its strength in anticipation of an attack. The regulations were changed during the First World War to make the awards purely for gallantry. All ranks, 1st Battalion, 21 November 1907 (W/19), Men who had served in the Great War and re-enlisted are included in the first three volumes of Army Book 358 (A16/52/1-3) Sgt WH Crane, 2nd Battalion: biographical account of service (1881-1909) (Y1/492) Late that evening the convoy, including an escort of British destroyers, sailed from Liverpool and headed out into the Irish Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Our food, still mainly boiled rice, was necessarily becoming more acceptable, at times with the addition of fruit - bananas and pineapples - and some eggs. They served with the 3rd Infantry Division throughout the entire North West Europe Campaign from D-Day to Victory in Europe Day in 1945. Gazette. [15], The 7th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment was a war-formed unit raised in June 1940, shortly after Dunkirk, and, on 10 October, was assigned to the 210th Independent Infantry Brigade (Home) alongside other hostilities-only battalions. Taiping HEALEY T J Private 653823 Malaya - Army 1RNZIR 08 Sep 1964 Terendak Military Cemetery The 2nd Battalion held their defensive position despite losing their commanding officer, Lt. Col. C.A.H. While at this camp he was put to work, along with other POWs in the centre of Singapore, building a Japanese shrine (which was later demolished at the end of the war). After leaving Halifax they sailed south along the Eastern coast of America arriving at Port of Spain, Trinidad on 17th November for the purpose of refuelling and stock replenishment which was carried out in the harbour without docking and no shore leave. Pte GW Durrell: CD of reminiscences of service in the Great War (Y1/754) Recommendations for gallantry, X Company, 2nd Battalion, 1918-1919 (Y1/168b) . In that situation they were given no chance to prove themselves in actual combat. It was stationed for the majority of the time in India. This assignment first entailed digging up the fairways and greens of the golf course to make roads leading to a wooden bridge which was being built over the reservoir by other prisoners. Despite British attempts to cut off the link between the guerrillas and the Chinese community, fighting continued. camp situated close to the Singapore Bukit Timah Golf Club and adjacent to the McRitchie Reservoir. Rank. Pte CW Baskett, Volunteer Company:1900-1902 (Y1/19) [28], The 1/4th Battalion landed at Le Havre as part of the Jullundur Brigade of the 3rd (Lahore) Division in November 1914 for service on the Western Front. They received no orders or instructions concerning battle plans nor enemy troop movements at that time - the whole unit felt completely isolated and unattached. 501. Lenny Murphy Born in 1952, he was a prominent member of the West Belfast UVF. After almost three weeks sailing from Trinidad, on the 9th December, the convoy neared Cape Town's Table Bay, and were treated to a most wonderful sight of the phenomenal Table Mountain on the horizon. 4th Battalion officers casualty list, 1914-1917 (G4/2) Forename/s. In 1943 the battalion transferred to the 123rd Indian Infantry Brigade, part of the 5th Indian Infantry Division and served with them in the Burma Campaign. Lieut-Col FW Turner, 4th Battalion: France 1914-1916 (Y1/263) The communists of the MNLA were jungle based and supported by the impoverished Chinese population. The Suffolk Regiment was formed in 1685 when King James II ordered the Duke of Norfolk to raise a regiment against the threatened Monmouth Rebellion. The 2021-2022 school year was a joyful one in which we returned to so many much . The Malayan Police and Special Branch were given the task of gathering information. On 18th January 1940 many young men, barely out of their boyhood, were called up for military service. Commanders-in-Chief have included:[13][14][15]GOC Troops in the Straits Settlements, Arrived January 3rd 1942 February 5th 1942, Allied Air Force units in Malaya December 1941, George Ernest Morrison 'The correspondence of G.E. Reinforcements were sent from August 1948 onwards. 142 RAC was present when the Allies overcame the Hitler Line and the Gothic Line in late 1944. Compared to the previous ship this was a magnificent looking transport, everything about it being first class, accommodation and food excellent and friendliness of the American crew could not have been better. During this time and following several months of training, the pace quickened and they were introduced to the dangerous and frightening weapons of war - using live ammunition - and during one such exercise a shell dropped short amongst them, resulting in a number of serious injuries and the death of a Lance Corporal. Arriving at the region's main airport of Lyon . Pte GJ Steele, 5th Battalion: Japanese POW 1941-1943 (Y1/729) George Arthur Carrick Kiernan, 2nd Battalion, Federated Malay States Volunteer Forces (Selangor) - Lt. Col. W.M. After one back-breaking day, Doug Harvey picked up a small round section of a teak tree and took it back to the Bukit Timah camp with the other pieces of wood intended for burning, but he kept and hid the small round section. [18] As the county regiment of Suffolk, it also gained the county's militia and rifle volunteer battalions, which were integrated into the regiment as numbered battalions. Photocopies of recommendations and citations for gallantry awards, 1940-1958 (A8/7) On December, 1, whilst at sea, the Division was diverted, by order of the War Cabinet, to Singapore, landing on 13 January. 5, September/October 1943 (Y1/582c). Notebook with testimonials made to various officers, Camp Hakodate, August/September 1945 (Y1/4) Your destination for buying luxury property in Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes, France. Howards and the Suffolk Regiment. The culpable lack of information, instruction and physical back-up support whilst occupying a front line disposition meant they had been absolutely static. Soldiers of the 12th Foot involved at the Eureka Stockade, Ballarat, 1854 (B13/1) Lieut HM Brown, 4th Battalion: France 1914-1917 (Y1/42b) In early October 1941, whilst at Leominster (at which stage they were considered to be a fully trained, most efficient and well-equipped fighting unit), they were informed that they would be going overseas, possibly for service in the Middle East, being issued with khaki drill tunics, topis and the most ridiculous sloppy, button-down over-the-knees khaki drill shorts. After the end of the fighting in North Africa the regiment remained there until April 1944 when, with the rest of the brigade, it landed at Naples, Italy, destined for service in the Italian campaign, where they fought in Operation Diadem, where the Allies finally broke out of the Gustav Line. If you have signed up to our new membership system then please access the List of FEPOWs via your new login. This was despite the fact that the German Army, knowing the 2nd Battalion had no hope of survival, entreated them to surrender, even ordering the German buglers to sound the British Cease Fire and gesticulating for the men of the 2nd to lay down their arms. Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919: Part 17, The Suffolk Regiment, 1921 (A9/3) Members of A Company, 2nd Battalion after the Battle of Le Cateau, 26 August 1914 (C3/1) Casualties at Rensburg, South Africa, 1st Battalion, January 1900 (W/13) There are many maps (manuscript and printed and at a variety of scales), mostly of the areas in which the regiment served from the mid-19th century. The initial British reaction to the crisis was to introduce emergency legislation, allowing suspects to be detained without trial. The 2nd was also regarded as a good shooting battalion with high level of musketry skills. He also persuaded the High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney, to set up committees containing representatives of all civil and military agencies involved in the campaign so that a co-ordinated response to the guerrillas could be formulated. It saw service for three centuries, participating in many wars and conflicts, including the First and Second World Wars, before being amalgamated with the Royal Norfolk Regiment to form the 1st East Anglian Regiment (Royal Norfolk and Suffolk) in 1959 which, in 1964, was further amalgamated with the 2nd East Anglian Regiment (Duchess of Gloucester's Own Royal Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire), the 3rd East Anglian Regiment (16th/44th Foot) and the Royal Leicestershire Regiment to create the present Royal Anglian Regiment. Ken left Singapore and was sent overland to Thailand and the Burma railway where he worked for the most part at Chungkai. Jack Hind and Frederick Castle: video recordings of reminiscences (A16/39) Very cautiously, in the dark he managed to locate his old hut and frantically dug where he had hidden his plaque and found it. After these reforms, the regiment now included:[7][19], The 1st Battalion served in the Second Boer War: it assaulted a hill near Colesberg in January 1900 and suffered many casualties including the commanding officer. Shortly after withdrawing they felt utter despair and dejection on hearing the bagpipes of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders leaving the mainland on the retreat from Malaya across the Causeway. 4th Battalion, 1942-1945 (G4/7-8,10) Those troops now making a stand around Singapore had to await the outcome of the rearguard action which was taking place in the South of Malaya by the British, Australian, Indian and Malayan troops. Cpl R Boyd, 1st Battalion: Malaya 1952 (Y1/585). The next day they assembled in the grounds of the College and saw for the first time a close-up of their captors; a bunch of scruffy, slant-eyed little men, many of them bespectacled, dressed in dirty green uniform, rubber shoes, peaked caps and wearing puttees up to their knees. [4] When the Nine Years' War ended with the 1697 Treaty of Ryswick, the regiment was saved from disbandment by becoming part of the Irish establishment, then spent the War of the Spanish Succession in Jamaica. Upon arrival the regiment was split up with each of the 4 batteries being sent to different locations in Malaya. [33], The 2nd Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment was serving in India at the outbreak of the Second World War, spending the early years of the war mainly deployed on internal security duties. The Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) - the armed wing of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) - began attacking rubber plantations, mines and police stations, derailing trains and burning workers' houses. Templer placed great emphasis on the need to win the 'hearts and minds' of the population. B Company, 7th Battalion, NCOs and men, 9 March 1918 (J2/1) However, spouts of water could clearly be seen as the bombs missed the ships behind the Wakefield and fell into the sea. All ranks, 2nd Battalion, 17 December 1889 (W/2) Papers re escape from Freiburg, 1918 (Y1/29) Officers Died in the Great War 1914-1919, 1919 (A9/2) The Centre is part of a particularly dynamic ecosystem, within the second French .