Name
Arthur John Warner
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
21/09/1944
24
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Gunner
917386
Royal Artillery
135 (The Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regt.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SINGAPORE MEMORIAL
Column 36.
Singapore
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in Hertfordshire and was resident in the county when he enlisted. His Service Number was 917386 and he was another Territorial member of the unfortunate 344 Battery of the 135th (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment Royal Artillery which after mobilisation was part of the 18th (Eastern) Di vision.
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 died in the Japanese Auxiliary prison ship ‘Hofuku Maru’ of 5825 tons and built in 1918 which was conveying the men from Thailand to Japan under the most dreadful conditions. This was just a few days before the vessel was attacked and sunk by American carrier-based aircraft off the coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines causing heavy loss of life among the prisoners.
He was buried at sea, and he is remembered on the Singapore Memorial to the Missing at Column 36.
He was the son of Mr and Mrs G. Warner of Walsworth.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson, local historian
