Name
Percy Houghton
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
21/09/1945
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
881826
Royal Artillery
135 (The Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY
6. D. 68.
Thailand
Headstone Inscription
LEST WE FORGET
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. John's War Memorial, St. Mary's Church, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born and resident in Hertfordshire. He was a former member of the Church Lads' Brigade and had been employed by Messrs Geo. King, a local engineering firm.
He held Service Number 881826 and was in 499 Battery of the 135th (Herts Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. This was a Territorial unit equipped with 8 x 25 pounder guns. The Regiment sailed from Gourloch at the end of October 1941 bound for Halifax in Nova Scotia. They then transferred to the S.S. ‘Mount Vernon’ and went to Cape Town destined for the Middle East. On the way they were diverted to Singapore arriving during an air attack on the 13th January 1942. They were sent to Johore where they were in action returning to Singapore Island on the 30th January 1942.
On the 12th February the Battery and the 2/9th Gurkhas plugged a gap in the line at Nee Soon. On the 13th February 1942 they were still fighting and only surrendered on the 15th February when ordered to do so having destroyed their equipment. They went to Changi into captivity where they remained until moved to Bukit Timah in May 1942, both places on Singapore Island.
At the end of October 1942 five hundred of the Regiment were moved to Tamarkan in Thailand where they built the bridge on the River Kwai. This was finished by April 1943 at which time they were dispersed to various camps across Thailand, Burma and Malaya.
Although missing at the fall of Singapore in February 1942, he probably survived much of the Japanese cruelty only to die of disease and malnutrition just before the Japanese surrender.
He is buried in Plot 6, Row D, Grave 68 in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand. The stone bears the private inscription "Lest we forget".
He was the fifth son of Walter and Sarah Houghton, and his home was at 4, Wedmore Rd., Hitchin.
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 31st March 1942
