Name
Philip Henry Smith
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
22/08/1943
42
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
810116
Royal Artillery
135 (The Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
CHUNGKAI WAR CEMETERY
5. L. 6.
Thailand
Headstone Inscription
None
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was yet another Territorial member of the ill-fated 344 Battery, 135th (Herts Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery captured at the fall of Singapore in February 1942 by the Japanese and his Service Number was 810116. He was resident in Hertfordshire at the time he joined up.
344 Battery was equipped with 8 x 4.5 howitzers and the Regiment 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, the Battery was despatched to the west coast of Johore and was 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.
He is buried in Plot 5, Row L, Grave 6 in Chungkai Cemetery in Thailand.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, ‘History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery - Far East Theatre - 1941-1946’ by M. Farndale
