WALTER CHARLES SOUTHGATE
Charles’s portrait and profile will be displayed at a V.J. Day exhibition, “Be Ye Men of Valour,” from Saturday, 9th August to Monday, 25th August (Bank Holiday) 2025, at St. Margaret’s Church, Ipswich, IP4 2BT.
Image taken from the Evening Star – 7th April 1942.
Born: 23rd September 1915, Ipswich.
Died: 8th December 1944; age: 29; Japanese PoW Thailand – Burma Railway. Killed while a PoW working in Burma on the railway on the Bridge over the River Kwai. Accidentally killed by friendly fire from the Americans who mistakenly thought the train he was travelling to work on was a troop train instead of a PoW train.
Captured: 15th February 1942 – Fall of Singapore.
Residence: 128, Wherstead Road, Ipswich.
Occupation: Builder’s Labourer – Messrs. Woolnough Bros. Builders of Ipswich.
Rank: Lance Corporal; Service Number: 5825872.
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 4th Battalion – Infantry.
Originally buried at Brenkassi, grave no. 24. The body was exhumed, identified by records and reburied 9th February 1946 at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.
Grave Reference:
2.P.57.
Thailand.
Father: Frederick Ernest Albert Southgate, born September 1881, Tattingstone, Suffolk.
Mother: Hilda Elizabeth Southgate (nee Sparrow), born June 1890, Shotley, Suffolk.
Probate to Frederick Ernest Albert Southgate – father, a Corporation employee.
Walter is also remembered on the war memorial at St. Peter’s Church, Stutton, Suffolk.
The Suffolk Regiment 4th Battalion
The Battalion was 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.
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