5933317, Private, Richard William FUSSEY
Aged 21
|
Born on 17th March 1921 [Newmarket 3b:861], son of John and Louisa FUSSEY (née BUTCHER) and lived at 22 St Philips Road, Newmarket.
He was employed before enlistment by Ager, the hairdresser.
In the 1939 register his father [22-9-1881] (head lad in a racing stable), and mother Louisa [15-10-1879] were at 22 St.Philip's Road, Newmarket. There is one closed record. |
|
Captured at the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese on 15th February 1942, he died of illness whilst a prisoner of war of the Japanese working on the Burma railway. The bridges crossing the River Mae Klong (renamed after the war as Kwa Yai) were started in October 1942, using PoW labour, completed and operational by February 1943. Both the wooden and the adjacent steel bridge were subjected to numerous air raids between January and June 1945. POW labour was used to repair the wooden bridge on each occasion. The steel bridge had been dismantled in Java and shipped to Burma. The prisoner of war camp was close to the bridges and resulted in some Allied deaths due to Allied bombing raids. Originally buried in Kanburi Base Hospital Cemetery he was moved to Kanchanburi War Cemetery on 29th January 1946 |
Picture PA, as reproduced in Daily Mail ánd Daily Telegraph
showing the two bridges and the prison camp to right of the bridge
picture from Australian War Memorial: AWM P00761.001
| Tamarkan, Thailand c. September 1945. The steel bridge over the Mae Klong River (renamed Kwai Yai River in 1960) This bridge, dismantled and brought from Java in 1942, was rebuilt by the Japanese using POW labour. It was finished and operational by May 1943. Allied air raids finally dropped one of the 11 spans in mid-February 1945. Two more spans were dropped during raids between April and June 1945. Tamarkan is 55 km north of Nong Pladuk (also known as Non Pladuk) and five km north of Kanchanaburi. |
© Commonwealth War Graves Commission
click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details
