No.90445, Captain, Thomas Richard Edgar ENNION
Aged 30
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Richard Thomas Edgar Ennion was born in Soham on 23rd January 1912 (Newmarket Q1-1912 3B:894), baptised in Soham on 2nd March 1912, son of Edgar Rowland and Adela Blanche ENNION (née TUNBRIDGE), of Moat House, Soham. His brother Jack Rowland ENNION was also commissioned in the Cambridgeshire Regiment, reached the rank of Colonel, survived the war and became a solicitor in the family firm in Newmarket, dying in 1994.
In the 1939 register , at Addison House, Sand Street, Soham were his father Edgar R [19-9-1877] solicitor and mother Adela B [8-11-1880] |
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Thomas was Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, Cambridgeshire Regiment. There was another Captain Ennion in the 2nd Cambridgeshires, Capt T.A.D. Ennion, who actually escaped from Singapore on 15th February 1942 and managed to reach Ceylon. It is not known currently if there was a family connection,(this man though was possibly a solicitor in Dover in 1948). From Michael Moore's book "Battalion at War - Singapore 1942" we learn that:- The 2nd Cambridgeshires were completely surrounded in the Braddell Road vicinity. Their HQ staff of only fifteen men were fighting desperately against a full Japanese company. The reserve company tried to give assistance but lost all its officers and senior N.C.O.s. Acting C.O. Major A.B.Grant Stephen was killed leading a grenade attack. The Japanese having capture the HQ's only Bren gun were relying on rifle fire and were over run but a few survivors threw back the enemy with a bayonet charge. This counter attack allowed them to withdraw into the safety of "A" Company of the 2nd Cambridgeshires, but during the break out Captain Ennion and four other ranks were killed. |
photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
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