BERNARD VICTOR BEECROFT
Image from 1945 Evening Star newspaper
Born: 7th April 1919, Ipswich.
Died: 21st July 1943; age: 24; Died from Beri-beri, whilst a Japanese PoW – Thailand – Burma Railway.
Captured: 15th February 1942 – Fall of Singapore.
Residence: 92, Foxhall Road, Ipswich.
Occupation: a Salesman.
Rank: Lance Corporal; Service Number: 5830621
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 4th Battalion – Infantry.
Grave Reference:
8.G.10.
Thailand.
Grave image courtesy of Kevin Knights
Relatives Notified & Address: Youngest son of Horace & Emma Beecroft, of 9, Neale Street, Ipswich; husband of Joan Alice Beecroft, of Ipswich.
Father: Horace Beecroft, born March 1875, Worlingworth, Suffolk. An Iron Monger’s Carman.
Mother: Emma Beecroft (nee Daines), born February 1874, Sutton, Suffolk.
ENGLAND & WALES REGISTER 1939
Bernard was a Shop Assistant at a Confectioners & Tobacconist. He was living with his parents and sister at their family home – 9, Neale Street, Ipswich.
Horace, an Ironmonger’s Carman.
Emma, unpaid Domestic Duties.
Veda Irene Josephine Beecroft, a Housemaid and Waitress at a Drapey Store, born August 1917, Ipswich.
In 1941, Ipswich, Bernard married Joan Alice Culf, born 1923, Ipswich, daughter of Harold Bouquet Culf, a gent’s hairdresser and Alice Laura Culf (nee Girling), a Fish Frier, of the Fish Bar, 4 & 6, St. Peter’s Street, Ipswich.
Joan’s brother ERIC HAROLD CULF also lost his life during the Second World War, as an Italian PoW aboard S.S.’Scillin.’
The 18th East Anglian Division. (including 4/5th Battalion the Suffolk Regiment)
15 February 1942: After the fall of Singapore, approximately 620 of the Battalions were taken POW and later mostly died on the Burma-Thailand Railway. Bernard was held at Chungkai prison camp.
Friends of The Suffolk Regiment
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