Name
Rodney Day
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
01/08/1943
31
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Bombardier
803602
Royal Artillery
attd. H.Q. 18th Indian Div
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY
6. C. 2.
Thailand
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. John's Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin,
Biography
Known to family and friends as ‘Ted’, prior to the war he had worked for the Herts Bacon Factory and was also in the Territorial Army. He was given Service Number 803602 in the 135th (Herts Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery and sent to Malaya and attached to the 18th Indian Division.
The Regiment had sailed from Gourloch (probably Gouroch in Scotland) at the end of October 1941 for Halifax, Nova Scotia. They were transferred to the S.S. ‘Mount Vernon’ and went to Cape Town heading for the Middle East. On the way they were diverted to Singapore and arrived during an air attack on the 13th January 1942.
Following the surrender to the Japanese on the 15th February 1942 the prisoners were moved to Changi and in May 1942 moved to Bukit Timah, both on the Island of Singapore. Later in 1942 about 500 of the Regiment were at Tamarkan building the bridge on the River Kwai which was completed in April 1943. He died in captivity after much ill-treatment whilst labouring on the Burma-Thailand railway.
He was the son of George and Amy Day of 56, Sunnyside Road, Hitchin. His home was at 50, Sunnyside Rd, Hitchin and he had four children.
He is buried in Plot 6, Row C, Grave 2 in Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand. The cemetery contains the graves of over 5,000 Commonwealth personnel who died during the construction of the notorious railway.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery - Far East Theatre 1941-1946’ by M. Farndale, Herts Pictorial dated 27th July 1943
