Name
Claude Hailey
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
25/06/1943
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lance Bombardier
878022
Royal Artillery
135 (The Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY
Coll. grave 6. G. 1-67.
Thailand
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
Before the war he was a grocer's assistant and had been born in Hertfordshire and enlisted in the county. He was also a Territorial in 344 Battery of the 135th (Herts Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery which was the same unit as that of several other men whose names appear on the Hitchin War Memorials. He was given Service Number 878022.
The Regiment, equipped with 8 x 4.5 howitzers, sailed from Gourloch 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. After disembarking they were despatched to the west coast of Johore and were in action before withdrawing to Singapore Island by the 31st January 1942. They fought vigorously on the island until ordered to destroy their equipment and surrender on the 15th February 1942.
Following the surrender they were moved to Changi and in May 1942 moved to Bukit Timah, both on the Island of Singapore. Late in 1942 about 500 of the Regiment were at Tamarkan building the bridge on the River Kwai which was completed in April 1943. They then continued in various work camps in Thailand and Malaya where they were starved and ill-treated.
A card was received by his family in July 1943 from a Japanese prison camp.
He was buried in Plot 6, Row G, Collective Graves 1-67 in Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand
He was the son of Mr and Mrs F. Hailey of 32, The Crescent, Hitchin.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, ‘History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery - Far East Theatre - 1941-46’ by M. Farndale, Herts & Beds Express dated 24th July 1943
