CHARLES PERCY WATSON
From May through to September 2026, Andrew will be fulfilling his dream to hike the iconic Land’s End to John O’Groats! You are all warmly invited to follow Andrew’s epic journey on his Facebook page, “Andrew Beal LEJOG” https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61577588795730
As Andrew hikes the 1,300+ miles, he will raise funds for the Ipswich War Memorial Project to help finance our future exhibitions and research of the brave Ipswich men and women who lost their lives in conflict. If you would like to make a small donation, please click on the link: https://gofund.me/5d4a50570
Thank you for your love and support. Andrew & Helen – I.W.M.P.
Born: 13th June 1921, at 57, Foxhall Road, Ipswich.
Died: 29th November 1943; age: 22; Japanese PoW – massacred in the water off Kangean Islands.
Captured at Java.
Residence: 83, Morland Road, Ipswich.
Occupation: Clerk.
Rank: Leading Aircraftman; Service Number: 1287882.
Regiment: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
Final resting place unknown.
Memorial Reference:
Column 427.
Kranji,
Singapore.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Ethel May Watson, of Ipswich.
Father: Percy MacDonald Watson, born 1895, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk – died 1933, Ipswich.
Mother: Ethel May Watson (nee Read), born February 1896, Winston, Suffolk.
CENSUS
1921 57, Foxhall Road, Ipswich.
Baby (and as yet unnamed) Charles was 6 days old and lived with his parents and a nurse.
Percy Watson, 26 years & 9 months old, a Baker for Mr. William Joshua Bines – Master Baker of Hill House Road Bakery, Ipswich.
Ethel Watson, 25 years & 4 months old, Home Duties.
Ellen Mary Ward (nee Mays), 66 years & 6 months old, a Nurse – own account, born Falkenham, Suffolk.
ENGLAND & WALES REGISTER 1939
Charles was employed as a Junior Clerk. He lived with his widowed mother and brother at their family home 83, Morland Road, Ipswich.
Ethel, unpaid Domestic Duties.
Arthur MacDonald Watson, a Junior Clerk, born March 1924, Ipswich.
1 other – Irene May Heard, at School, born August 1933, Ipswich.
Probate to Ethel May Watson – mother.
Percy, Ethel, Charles and Arthur Watson are all remembered on the Watson headstone at Ipswich Old Cemetery, Ipswich.
Previously held at Moluccas Ambon POW camp Java.
SS Suez Maru was a Japanese passenger-cargo ship, used as a Hell Ship, torpedoed by submarine USS Bonefish on 29 November 1943, carrying 548 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) of which many drowned and the rest, some 250 men, were machine-gunned by the Japanese in the water
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