RAYMOND THEOPHILUS KING

Born: 5th December 1916, Ipswich.
Died: 24th September 1943; age: 27; died of Acute Enteritis at Nanchon Yai, as a Japanese PoW on the Thailand-Burma Railway.
Captured: 15th February 1942 – Fall of Singapore.
Residence: 38, Rosebery Road, Ipswich.
Occupation: a Sheet Metal Worker at Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, Ipswich.
Rank: Private; Service Reference: 5828796/
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 5th Battalion – Infantry, 18th Division.
Originally buried at Nanchon Yai, in a joint common grave No. 71-72. Bodies later exhumed, identified by records and re-buried together between 11th March 1946 – 12th April 1946 at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.
Grave Reference:
Joint Grave 6. C. 71-72.
Thailand.
Joint grave with Signalman, 2353471, Geoffrey Edward Russell of the Royal Signals who died 26th September 1943, of Malaria. Son of William Henry Russell & Lucy Russell (nee Naylor), of Harrogate, Yorkshire.
Photograph of Geoffrey Edward Russell courtesy of Paul from the photograph collection of Edna Kilvington.
Relatives Notified & Address: Only son of Mr & Mrs E. King, of Ipswich.
Father: Ernest King, born December 1889, Chelmondiston, Suffolk.
Mother: Ellen May King (nee Payne), born March 1893, Ipswich.
ENGLAND & WALES REGISTER 1939.
Raymond was a Sheet Metal Worker at Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies, Ipswich. He was living with his parents at their family home – 38, Rosebery Road, Ipswich.
Ellen, unpaid Domestic Duties.
Ernest, a Flour Mill Machinist Attendant.
1 other.
Probate to Winifred Audrey Aira – sister, wife of Eurico Guiseppe Aira.
Raymond is also remembered by Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies with entrance gates, dedicated in May 1958, at Ransomes Sports’ Centre, Sidegate Avenue, Ipswich.
4th and 5th Battalions:
The Battalions were attached to the 18th East Anglian Division.
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.
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