ALBERT CHARLES WRIGHT

Albert is not remembered on a war memorial in Ipswich.

Image from 23rd March 1945 Evening Star newspaper.

Born: 26th March 1908, Ipswich.

Died on or since: 24th June 1944; Age: 36; Japanese POW – on board the hell ship ‘Tamahoko Maru.’

Captured: 8th March 1942.

Residence: 42, Austin Street, Ipswich.

Occupation: Iron Breaker.

Rank: Gunner; Service Number: 1715475.

Regiment: Royal Artillery, 89th Battery, 35 Light Anti Aircraft Regt.

Final resting place unknown.

Memorial Reference:

Column 34.

Singapore Memorial,

Kranji,

Singapore.

Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Mr. & Mrs. M. Wright, of Ipswich.

CENSUS

1911   16, Hamilton Street, Ipswich.

Albert was 3 years old and living with his parents and brothers.

David Wright, 31, a Labourer – Great Eastern Railway Company, born Framsden, Suffolk.

Maud Margaret Wright (nee Symonds), 26, born Ipswich.

David Thomas Wright, 4, born Ipswich.

Herbert Cyril Wright, 1, born Ipswich.

ENGLAND & WALES REGISTER 1939

Albert was employed as an Iron Breaker. He lived with his widowed mother, siblings, and nieces at 42 Austin Street, Ipswich, the family home.

Maud, unpaid Domestic Duties.

Bernard Cecil Wright, an Apprentice Floor Moulder, born May 1920, Ipswich.

Irene Evelyn Wright, a Labeller and Packer – Brewery, born July 1922, Ipswich.

Doris Maud Foulger (nee Wright (1st marriage Hutchison)), unpaid Domestic Duties, born March 1912, Ipswich.

Audrey Doreen Hutchison, at School, born August 1930, Ipswich.

Daphne T. Hutchison, born 1932, Ipswich.

1 other.

Probate to Maud Margaret Wright – widowed mother.

24th June 1944

The ‘Tamahoko Maru’ was a large Japanese passenger/cargo ship used as a Hell Ship. On the 20th June 1944, ‘Tamahoko Maru’ left the harbour at Takao, Formosa (Taiwan), with a quarter cargo of rice and sugar, 500 Japanese soldiers, and 772 British, American, Australian and Dutch servicemen who had been captured in the Dutch East Indies. The ‘Tamahoko Maru’ sailed in a convoy of twelve ships escorted by two corvettes, a mine layer and a whaling ship on the journey to Japan. On the 24th June 1944, the boat was approaching Nagasaki. At 11:50hrs, ‘Tamahoko Maru’ was torpedoed by the submarine USS ‘Tang.’ She sank in less than 2 minutes. 560 Allied PoWs died, along with members of the crew and Japanese soldiers. The survivors were picked up the next morning by the whaling ship, and taken to the PoW Camp at Kyushu.