Name
Ronald Frank George Cannon
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
08/11/1944
26
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Bombardier
1524347
Royal Artillery
78 Bty., 35 Lt. A.A. Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SINGAPORE MEMORIAL
Column 9.
Singapore
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. Mark’s Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
Born and resident in Hertfordshire. His Service Number was 1524347 and he was in 78 Battery of the 35th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery. This was a Territorial Army unit equipped with 8 x 40mm Bofors guns. It was formed in June 1941 as part of the 18th (Eastern Division) and diverted on the way to the Middle East to Singapore arriving on the 13th January 1942.
Due to the deteriorating situation, the unit left Singapore on the 30th January 1942 and by the 3rd February was at P1 and P2 airfields near Pangkalenbentang and Palembang in Sumatra. It was in action all day on the 14th February 1942 defending the airfields and adjacent oilfields. Late in the day they were forced to evacuate and experienced hand to hand fighting with the Japanese. They later destroyed their equipment as best they could and set off into the jungle to escape and some may have ended up in Java before being captured by March 1942. 176 men of the Battery were lost in action or in captivity over the next three and a half years.
Ron was drowned in a Japanese ship that sank on the way to Java. The information came from another Prisoner of War who was on the ship but escaped. He has no known grave but is remembered on the Singapore Memorial to the Missing at Column 9.
His parents were Frank and Lucy Gertrude Cannon of 47, Mattocke Rd, Hitchin. Reginald George Cannon, another fatal casualty, was his brother.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery - Far East Theatre 1941-46’ by M. Farndale, Herts Pictorial dated 27th Feb & 20th Nov 1945
