WILLIAM EDWARD TUNMORE
BILLY
Birth: 29th April 1908, Ipswich.
Died: 01:45hrs, 14th January 1944; age 35; died as a Japanese PoW, at Changi Hospital, of Cerebral Abscess as a result of penetrating shrapnel to the brain.
Details of William’s final days were record by Reverend Chambers in his book, as a record of Changi deaths, giving some personal details of the last hours of deceased PoW. It was Reverend Chamber’s special wish that the details be shared with the Next of Kin. “He recovered from first fit and was getting on very well. He was visited by many friends. I quite thought he would recover. P.M. showed that there was no hope that he would have. Embedded shrapnel in the head having pierced the brain.”
Captured: 15th February 1942 – Fall of Singapore.
Residence: 24, Long Street, Ipswich.
Occupation: Bus Driver.
Rank: Sergeant; Service Number: 5823510.
Regiment: Suffolk Regiment, 4th Battalion.
Originally buried 14th January 1944 at Changi Cemetery. Body exhumed, identified and reburied 2nd May 1946 at Kranji War Cemetery.
Grave Reference:
16.B.3.
Kranji,
Singapore.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of William Edward and Rosa Tunmore, husband to Hilda May Tunmore Ipswich.
CENSUS
1911 113, Kemball Street, Ipswich.
William was 3 years old and living with his parents & siblings.
William Edward Tunmore, 37, a Plough Share Moulder – Iron Foundry, born Ipswich.
Rosa Martha Tunmore (nee Mussett), 39, born Ipswich.
Bertie William Tunmore, 14, a Domestic Errand Boy, born Ipswich.
Rose Helena Tunmore, 7, born Ipswich.
Walter Samuel A. Tunmore, 5, born Ipswich.
Hilda Beatrice M. Tunmore, under 3 months, born Ipswich.
In 1932, Ipswich, William married Hilda Mary Sheldrake, born 1908, Woodbridge, Suffolk – daughter of Levi Sheldrake, a butcher, and Daisy Annie Sheldrake (nee Beckett), of 75, Seckford Street, Woodbridge.
They had 1 son:
Neville E. Tunmore, born 1932, Ipswich.
ENGLAND & WALES REGISTER 1939
Hilda and Neville were living at the family home – 24, Long Street, Ipswich.
Probate to Hilda May Tunmore – widow, of 75, Seckford Street, Woodbridge, Suffolk.
4th Battalion the Suffolk Regiment.
The Battalion was 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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