Name
Francis William Dudley
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
25/05/1943
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
5950452
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY
2. K. 58.
Thailand
Headstone Inscription
THE YEARS ROLL BY WITHOUT YOU BUT IN OUR HEARTS YOU STILL REMAIN
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in east London but at the time he enlisted, was resident in Hertfordshire. He was a member of the 5th Battalion of the Regiment and had the Service Number 5950452 . Tue Battalion embarked on the S.S. Reina de! Pacifico at Liverpool on the 27th October 1941 as part of the 18th (Eastern) Division destined for the Middle East. They transhipped at Halifax Nova Scotia on to the U.S.S. West Point. They had a short stop at Cape Town and sailed for Bombay on the 13th December 1941. Arriving at Bombay they were sent by rail to Ahmednagar and spent three weeks acclimatisation, route marching and general training. They arrived at Singapore on the 29th January 1942 and stayed on the island. Tue Battalion was then split up in conditions of chaotic changes of orders and never really had a chance to fight before being ordered to surrender at 8.25am on the 15th February 1942.
He was almost certainly one of the many starved and ill-treated by the Japanese after the fall of Singapore in February 1942, especially whilst working on the Thailand/Burma railway.
He was originally buried in Grave A/14 in Tamakan in Burma, but his body was later moved and buried in Kanchanaburi in Thailand in Plot 2, Row K, Grave 58. This consolidation became necessary due to political difficulties of access to maintain the grave. A private inscription on the stone reads "The years roll by without you but in our heart you still remain”.
His wife's first names were Myrtle Joan, and her home was in Hitchin.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘Cap Badge’ by R. H. Medley, Story of the Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment
