RONALD LEONARD SUTTON
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: 17th November 1913, St. John’s Wood, North West London.
Died: 21st September 1944; age: 30; died as a Japanese PoW aboard ‘Hafuke Maru’, unable to escape from the hold.
Captured: 15th February 1942 – Fall of Singapore.
Residence: 150, Wherstead Road, Ipswich.
Rank: Private; Service Number: 5826778.
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 4th Battalion – Infantry.
Final resting place unknown.
Memorial Reference:
Column 56.
Kranji,
Singapore.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Leonard & Priscilla Sutton, of Walpole, Suffolk; husband of Beatrice Isobel Sutton, of Ipswich.
Father: Leonard Halbert Sutton, born April 1891, Sevenoaks, Kent. An Inn Keeper and during the Secong World War an Air Raid Precautions – Stretcher Bearer.
Mother: Priscilla Martha Sutton (nee Knights), born November 1884, Runham, Norfolk.
CENSUS
1921 84, Broadhurst Gardens, Hampstead, London.
Ronald was 7 years & 7 months old. He attended School and lived with his parents, stepsister and sister.
Leonard Sutton, 30 years & 2 months old, a Metropolitan Police Constable for the Commissioner Metropolitan Police, West Hamstead Police Station.
Priscilla Sutton, 36 years & 8 months old, Home Duties.
Martha Knights, 12 years & 8 months old, at School, born Runham, Norfolk.
Olive Alma Sutton, 5 years & 11 months old, at School, born Marylebone, London.
In 1939, Ipswich, Ronald married Beatrice Isobel Evans, born November 1908, Ipswich – daughter of Percy William Evans, a timber weaver and Susan Evans (nee Smith, of Ipswich.
They had 1 son:
Ronald John L. Sutton, born July 1941, Suffolk.
Probate to Beatrice Isobel Sutton – widow.
4th Battalion:
The Battalions were attached to the 18th East Anglian Division.
15th February 1942: After the Fall of Singapore, approximately 620 of the Battalions were taken POW and later mostly died on the Burma-Thailand Railway.
SUFFOLK REGIMENT MUSEUM
Friends of The Suffolk Regiment
21st September 1944
The Hofuku Maru cargo ship carrying 1,289 British and Dutch prisoners of war in squalid and inhumane conditions. The ship being part of a convoy consisted of 10 other ships, 5 of which caring a total of 5,000 POWs. Most of the men had been captured at Singapore in 1942 and were being used as slave labour. The Japanese decided to move the POW’s to Japan to work in factories, mines and shipyards.
80 miles north of Corregidor in the Philippines, the ship was sunk by an American aircraft, which they believed the ships to be caring cargo for the Japanese war effort. 1,047 POW’s died on board unable to escape from the hold. Those who were able to break out spent five days at sea clinging to wreckage, most were recaptured by the Japanese. All 11 ships were sunk.
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