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Raymond Douglas Castle: A Detailed Biography

Able Seaman Raymond Douglas Castle, P/JX.236193, Royal Navy, of H.M.S. Exeter, was born on 5 August 1920 in Folkestone, Kent, and died of bacillary dysentery while a prisoner of war at Makassar, Celebes (Sulawesi), on 22 March 1945. [1] He is buried in Ambon War Cemetery, Maluku, Indonesia, where he is commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and remembered as the devoted son of Albert Douglas West Castle and Daisy Victoria Castle of Elham, Kent. [1][2][3]

Early Life and Family

Raymond Douglas Castle was born on 5 August 1920 at Folkestone, Kent, his birth registered in the September quarter of 1920 in the Elham registration district (volume 02A, page 2401). [1] He was the eldest son of Albert Douglas West Castle, a builder and contractor, and his wife Daisy Victoria, née Simpson, placing him in a family with strong local roots and clear social standing in Folkestone and later Elham. [1]

By 1921 the family had connections to Portsmouth, Hampshire, where the infant Raymond appears as a visitor at 34 Monmouth Road, North End, Portsmouth, aged ten months, in the 1921 census; the property is noted as uninhabited, but Raymond is recorded as a visitor, with both parents alive and resident in the Portsmouth parliamentary division. [1] This early movement between Folkestone and Portsmouth reflects both his father’s working life and the family’s wider network, with an early link to naval ports that would later be echoed in Raymond’s own career. [1]

Raymond’s childhood was principally rooted in Folkestone. On 8 February 1930 he is associated with “Folkestone Hythe Sandgate”, and by 1939 the Register records him at 8 Cherry Garden Lane, Folkestone, Kent. [1] A 1930 local newspaper item lists “Raymond D. Castle” among contributors of farthings to the L.L.K. cot at the Royal Victoria Hospital, showing his participation in local charitable efforts from a young age. [1] The family’s standing in the town is highlighted by the fact that his grandparents were the Mayor and Mayoress of Folkestone (Alderman and Mrs A. Castle), making him the “Mayor’s grandson” in contemporary press coverage. [1]

Early Life and Family (Education and Work)

Raymond received a good grammar-school education at the Harvey Grammar School, Folkestone, a well‑regarded local institution that prepared boys for professional and technical careers. [1] After leaving school he took up employment with the Folkestone Electricity Company, working under Mr Arthur Mills, suggesting an aptitude for technical or engineering work that would have been valuable in the modernising infrastructure of the inter‑war period. [1]

A 1942 press notice describes him as the eldest son of Mr and Mrs Douglas Castle of Cherry Garden Lane, Folkestone, and reiterates his status as grandson of the Mayor and Mayoress, underlining his family’s civic prominence. [1] The same notice records that his father, Douglas Castle, had himself served in the Royal Navy during the First World War, offering a clear family tradition of naval service that likely influenced Raymond’s own decision to volunteer for the Royal Navy. [1]

Military Service

Raymond volunteered for the Royal Navy at the age of 19, around 1939, and undertook his initial naval training at H.M.S. Collingwood, a well‑known shore establishment used as a training base for seamen and communications ratings. [1] He was allotted the service number P/JX.236193 (often rendered as P/JX 236193) in the Portsmouth division, and was rated Able Seaman (A.B.), placing him among the trained seamen of the fleet. [1]

After training, Raymond served for a time in Icelandic waters before being posted to the heavy cruiser H.M.S. Exeter (pennant number 68), a York‑class cruiser already famous for her role in the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939, when she helped drive the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee to scuttle at Montevideo. [1][4][5] During 1941 and early 1942 Exeter was employed largely on convoy escort duties and then transferred to the Far East with the American‑British‑Dutch‑Australian (ABDA) forces, as Japan advanced through South‑East Asia and the Netherlands East Indies. [6][3]

On 27 February 1942 Exeter took part in the first Battle of the Java Sea, where she was hit by Japanese shells that crippled her machinery and forced her temporary withdrawal to Surabaya, already with significant casualties among her crew. [6][3] Two days later, on 1 March 1942, still damaged and short of boiler power, Exeter attempted to escape to Ceylon but was intercepted by a superior Japanese force; after a three‑hour action she was further damaged by gunfire and torpedoes and finally abandoned and sunk in the Java Sea. [4][6][3] Of her company, 54 men were killed in the final action and about 651 survivors, including Able Seaman Raymond Castle, were rescued and taken prisoner by the Japanese, many eventually being sent to prisoner‑of‑war camps at Makassar (Macassar) on Celebes (Sulawesi) and other locations in the Netherlands East Indies and Japan. [1][2][7][3]

Military Service (POW Experience and Decorations)

Raymond’s individual report records that from 1 March 1942 he was a prisoner of war in Makassar/Java Sea, indicating capture following the loss of Exeter. [1] Japanese records summarised by later researchers show that the surviving crew of Exeter were first taken via Banjermassen in southern Borneo before being concentrated at Makassar POW Camp, where conditions of malnutrition, forced labour and disease led to further deaths among the prisoners. [2][7][8]

A broader account of Exeter’s survivors notes that approximately a quarter of those taken prisoner died in captivity, many from disease exacerbated by starvation and inadequate medical care. [2][6] Some men from Exeter were later moved to work on projects such as a nickel mine at Poemalla in eastern Celebes and to camps in Japan, but Raymond’s documentation places him consistently at Makassar until his death, suggesting he remained within that camp system. [1][7][8] His medals recorded are the 1939–45 Star and the War Medal 1939–1945, the standard campaign awards for service in the Second World War. [1]

Circumstances of Death

Raymond was officially reported as missing in early 1942, with a local newspaper notice of 21 March 1942 under the heading “Mayor’s Grandson Missing” recording that Able Seaman Raymond Douglas Castle of H.M.S. Exeter, eldest son of Mr and Mrs Douglas Castle of Cherry Garden Lane and grandson of the Mayor and Mayoress, had been posted missing following the Java Sea battles. [1] This reflected the immediate confusion after Exeter’s loss, when the Admiralty could confirm neither the fate of the ship’s company nor their eventual status as prisoners of war. [1][9]

By the end of the war fuller information emerged about the fate of Exeter’s POWs. A post‑war newspaper clipping from The People of 14 October 1945, transcribed in the individual report, states under the heading “DIED IN JAP HANDS” that news had been received by the Mayor and Mayoress of Folkestone that their son, an Able Seaman and survivor of H.M.S. Exeter, had died in Japanese hands the previous March, a reference clearly intended to Raymond though the clipping mis‑names him as “Reginald D. Castle”. [1] Official documentation clarifies that “CASTLE, Raymond Douglas, Official Number P/JX.236193, A.B., R.N., H.M.S. Exeter” died on 22 March 1945 at Makassar, Celebes, from bacillary dysentery while a prisoner of war in Japanese hands, a cause and place of death consistent with known conditions in the Makassar camp where disease and malnutrition were rife. [1][2][7]

Burial and Commemoration

Immediately after death, Raymond’s remains were buried locally under wartime conditions, with documentation citing Makassar War Cemetery, Celebes Island, Netherlands East Indies, as the burial place, where a Schedule “A”, Form H/2 entry records “R. D. Castle, Able Seaman, R.N. P/J.236193, H.M.S. ‘Exeter’, 22nd March 1945”, accompanied by a cross symbol and the family tribute “Always in our thoughts. Mother, Father, Howard and Valerie”. [1] Post‑war, the Imperial (now Commonwealth) War Graves Commission concentrated many scattered graves, and Raymond is now commemorated at Ambon War Cemetery, Maluku, Indonesia, grave reference 28. F. 12, as “CASTLE, A.B. RAYMOND DOUGLAS, P/JX.236193, R.N., H.M.S. Exeter, 22nd March 1945, Son of Albert Douglas Castle and Daisy Victoria Castle, of Elham, Kent.” [1][2]

The text of his headstone is preserved both in CWGC and family‑compiled sources, reading: “R. D. CASTLE, ABLE SEAMAN, R.N. P/J.236193, H.M.S. ‘EXETER’, 22ND MARCH 1945, ALWAYS IN OUR THOUGHTS. MOTHER, FATHER, HOWARD AND VALERIE.” [1] A linked Find a Grave memorial (ID 22742848) also records his details and the location of his grave at Ambon, providing modern researchers and relatives with accessible information and imagery. [1] His name appears within wider rolls of honour connected to H.M.S. Exeter and to the Far East POW community, which collectively commemorate those who died as prisoners of the Japanese between 1942 and 1945. [2][10][11]

Legacy

Raymond’s death had a profound impact on his family and community. Probate was granted in London on 6 July 1946 in respect of “CASTLE Raymond Douglas of The Knoll, Elham, near Canterbury, died 22 March 1945 at Makassar”, with administration to his father, Albert Douglas West Castle, builder and contractor, and his estate valued at £105 0s. 11d., illustrating both his youth and the modest financial circumstances typical of a young man whose adult life had been largely spent in wartime service. [1] The persistence of newspaper references from 1942 and 1945, and the emphasis on his relationship to the Mayor and Mayoress of Folkestone, show how closely his personal story was tied to local civic life and how his loss was felt as both a family bereavement and a communal sacrifice. [1]

Within the wider narrative of H.M.S. Exeter and the Java Sea campaign, Able Seaman Raymond Douglas Castle stands among those whose service extended beyond battle into years of captivity marked by hardship and disease. Modern historical accounts of Exeter’s loss stress that about a quarter of the ship’s survivors died as prisoners, and Raymond’s death from bacillary dysentery at Makassar on 22 March 1945, just months before the end of the war, exemplifies this grim statistic. [1][2][6][7] His grave at Ambon War Cemetery and his records on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website ensure that his name and sacrifice remain publicly accessible, maintaining his place in the collective memory of the Royal Navy, of Folkestone and Elham, and of all those who suffered as prisoners of war in the Far East. [1][2][3]

Key External Links

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry for Able Seaman Raymond Douglas Castle: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/4007017/raymond-douglas-castle/ [1]
• HMS Exeter overview and loss in the Java Sea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Exeter_(68) [4]
• General account of HMS Exeter’s sinking and POW experiences: https://blog.fold3.com/the-sinking-of-the-hms-exeter/ [2]

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Raymond-Douglas-Castle.pdf
[2] The Sinking of HMS Exeter – Fold3 HQ https://blog.fold3.com/the-sinking-of-the-hms-exeter/
[3] HMS Exeter, British heavy cruiser, WW2 https://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-06CA-Exeter.htm
[4] HMS Exeter (68) – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Exeter_(68)
[5] Heavy Cruiser Exeter (68) https://ww2db.com/ship_spec.php?ship_id=894
[6] HMS Exeter Battle of the Java Sea and later loss https://www.royalmarineshistory.com/post/hms-exeter-battle-of-the-java-sea-and-later-loss
[7] HMS Exeter (68) – Pacific Wrecks https://pacificwrecks.com/ship/hms/exeter.html
[8] Makassar POW Camp, Celebes http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/other/makassar_main.html
[9] HMS Exeter battle and POW summary http://www.mansell.com/pow_resources/camplists/other/makassar_exeter.html
[10] HMS Exeter Roll of Honour – MaritimeQuest https://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/pages/cruisers/hms_exeter_roll_of_honour.htm
[11] HMS Exeter (68) crew killed in action and missing … – Pacific Wrecks https://pacificwrecks.com/ship/hms/exeter/crew.html
[12] Ajax Crew & Casualties together with Exeter & Achilles River Plate … https://www.hmsajax.org/ajax-crew-casualties
[13] Michael Uniacke died in a Japanese POW Camp in February 1945 … https://www.facebook.com/groups/352758182704021/posts/1292775308702299/
[14] P Died Database – FEPOW Family https://www.fepow.family/Research/Serving_Country/Royal_Navy/HMS_Exeter/html/p_died_database_12.htm
[15] HMS Exeter – Researcher @ Large http://www.researcheratlarge.com/Ships/HMS/Exeter/1942CaptainsAction&LossReport.html
[16] CA 1936 Exeter http://alternateuniversewarships.com/Royal%20Commonwealth%20Navy/CA%201936%20Exeter/CA_1936_Exeter1.htm
[17] Prisoners of War of the Japanese 1942-1945 – POWs-of-japan.net https://www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/68.htm
[18] D 89 HMS Exeter – Royal Navy https://www.seaforces.org/marint/Royal-Navy/Destroyer/D-89-HMS-Exeter.htm
[19] War Memorial – WW2 Names – Colwall Village Society http://www.cvs.colwall.info/Articles/War_Memorial/Remembrance_pdfs/ww2_summary.html
[20] VJ Day: WW2 signed flag is ‘a piece of history’ – BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gzkn6djjjo
[21] Jan97 https://www.nautinsthk.com/jan97.html