Tag: Kanchanaburi War Cemetery

Remembering Eric Victor Cheeseman: POW and Casualty

Eric Victor Cheeseman was born on April 9, 1922, in Cranbrook, Kent. A Bombardier in the Royal Artillery, he served in the 5 Searchlight Regiment during World War II. Captured in 1943, he died as a prisoner of war in Thailand on August 7, 1943, and is buried at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.

Eric Victor Cheeseman was born in Cranbrook, Kent, on 9 April 1922, the son of Albert Edward Cheeseman and Edith Sarah Fedarb. He grew up in the Weald of Kent, in a market town shaped by agriculture, local trade, and the long traditions of Cranbrook School and the surrounding rural parishes. By 1941 he was living in Kent, and by the time the Second World War reached its darkest years he had entered military service. [1]

He served as Bombardier 6285906 in the Royal Artillery, with the 5 Searchlight Regiment. Cheeseman died on 7 August 1943 at the age of 21 while a prisoner of war in Thailand, and he is buried at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, one of the principal Commonwealth cemeteries linked to the Burma-Siam Railway. His gravestone bears the inscription: “Gone from us but not forgotten, never shall thy memory fade.” [2][1]

He was a young Kent man who served in searchlight artillery and died as a prisoner of war on the Burma-Siam Railway.

Early Life and Family

Cheeseman’s early years were spent in Cranbrook, a historic market town with deep roots in the Weald of Kent. The family record identifies his father as Albert Edward Cheeseman and his mother as Edith Sarah Fedarb, placing him in a working family with London connections later reflected in his adult residence at 69 Benhurst Court, Streatham. The move from Kent to south London before the war mirrors the wider pattern of interwar mobility in and around the capital. [1]

The 1939-era record does not show a spouse or children, and his death at 21 meant that there was no later family life of the kind many men might otherwise have built after the war. Instead, the surviving evidence focuses on his parents, his service, and the place where his remains were laid to rest. In that sense, his biography is both brief and deeply poignant. [1]

Military Service

Cheeseman served in the Royal Artillery as a Bombardier, service number 6285906, and the record places him with the 5 Searchlight Regiment. Searchlight units were part of Britain’s air-defence system, using powerful lights to help locate hostile aircraft at night and to assist anti-aircraft gunners and fighter control. Although searchlight work was usually associated with the home front and air defence, the regiment’s wartime history could be complex, and many men later became prisoners of war in the Far East after capture in earlier campaigns. [3][4][5][1]

As a bombardier, Cheeseman held a junior NCO rank that carried responsibility and technical competence. In the Royal Artillery such a rank normally indicated experience, reliability, and the ability to supervise others in a specialist battery or section. The family report and CWGC record together show that he was serving overseas in 1943 after being captured in February of that year. [1]

Unit Context at Time of Death

Cheeseman’s death took place against the backdrop of the Burma-Siam Railway, built by the Japanese between 1942 and 1943 to improve military supply routes into Burma. Tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war and Asian labourers were forced to work on the railway under brutal conditions, with disease, malnutrition, exhaustion, and violence causing enormous loss of life. Kanchanaburi War Cemetery was created to receive many of the dead from the southern section of the railway and now contains more than 5,000 Commonwealth burials. [6][2][1]

By 1943, the men buried at Kanchanaburi represented the human cost of a system of captivity in which captivity itself became a lethal condition. Cheeseman’s regiment and rank matter because they identify him not only as a casualty but as a trained artilleryman who had become one of the prisoners compelled into the Japanese war economy of labour and movement. His service record is therefore inseparable from the broader history of the Burma-Thailand railway and the Allied POW experience in Southeast Asia. [2][6][1]

He died in the shadow of the Burma-Siam Railway, where captivity, disease, and forced labour claimed thousands of lives.

Circumstances of Death

Eric Victor Cheeseman died in Thailand on 7 August 1943 at the age of 21. The family record gives the cause of death as indigestion, but in the context of POW life this almost certainly reflects a much broader physical breakdown brought on by harsh conditions, inadequate food, disease, and exhaustion. The exact immediate circumstances are not described in the record, yet the setting makes clear that he was living and dying under captivity conditions far from home. [2][1]

His death came only months after capture on 17 February 1943, and the probate record later confirmed that he had died “on war service”. That phrasing underlines the fact that even though he was a prisoner, he remained a serviceman in the eyes of the state and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. His name is also preserved in the memorial panels and cemetery records that keep alive the memory of those lost on the railway. [7][2][1]

Burial and Commemoration

Cheeseman is buried in Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Plot 8, Row G, Grave 14. The cemetery lies beside the Thailand-Burma Railway Centre and serves as the final resting place for thousands of Commonwealth prisoners of war who died during construction of the railway. His headstone is inscribed with his rank, name, regiment, date of death, and the personal family message chosen by his loved ones. [2][1]

The inscription, “Gone from us but not forgotten, never shall thy memory fade,” gives voice to the grief of his family in Streatham. The probate record shows that administration of his estate was granted to his mother, Edith Sarah Cheeseman, in August 1946, with modest effects of £123 9s. 2d. The CWGC entry and the family report together preserve both the official facts of burial and the deeply personal loss behind them. [1]

Legacy

Eric Victor Cheeseman’s life was short, but it traversed the wider wartime geography of the Second World War: from Cranbrook and Streatham to captivity in Thailand and burial at Kanchanaburi. He was a young bombardier in the Royal Artillery whose service ended not in action against the enemy but in the desperate conditions of prisoner-of-war labour under Japanese control. His story is a reminder that war’s cost was borne not only by those killed in battle, but by those who died in captivity after battle was over. [2][1]

His grave in Kanchanaburi stands among thousands of others from the Burma-Siam Railway, each one marking an individual life within a vast and tragic system of forced labour and loss. For family history, Cheeseman’s biography preserves the arc of an ordinary Kent and London upbringing, a wartime artillery career, and a death that connects directly to one of the darkest episodes of the Far Eastern war. His memory endures in the cemetery, the CWGC record, and the words cut into his headstone. [1][2]

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Eric-Victor-Cheeseman.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/ce6ab936-01e7-45b4-b004-a6bd1eab9941/Individual-Report-for-Eric-Victor-Cheeseman.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIA2F3EMEYEYCNL7Z33&Signature=rK%2BVWipiZ0mdHZGW90cG7dHDi%2BI%3D&x-amz-security-token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEHcaCXVzLWVhc3QtMSJFMEMCIBzC1kkdFqeuFs5LtzQSpLg6mF5B4duLTWanT6y2CXv2Ah8MTwKGaFCdzKa%2BnirDPuXM8%2FYVQ8IfqjWaVFtJ2%2FkHKvMECEAQARoMNjk5NzUzMzA5NzA1Igyb8Pzsqf1GK1XZpqgq0ASlUmWuAt5d6MJjVHvOx6U738pG%2FR8llJn6C3UtevnggmseTVX4%2BRJ2zyH89nHkI3qEj8Yu%2Fzkg4fNTbhH8lNHW7Ho51NYEOdjJxAjQdkWdOmbPhRf%2Fy6pDDJmU27jG%2B3jdUImKwE3uIgRAq3NPlsHlUzD5Q4WQcrUxDpmsZeAwgUBg6LvBCUr3ah0fKHnWdkK2NmB2rXfEOAzzkMd8GlkriNNt3h1EbB%2B7JI4PZ6GIsBP5HTFwa%2BNEZGgAqGJ4zalzBuYAs4ny4Z9%2BNPjVYz16xxNvFMzaBJpP8SG0%2BU4D%2BTBkdshKgCSWSxWT8gXXb7RygEgqjWdm4BKS0tZH4n%2BID6xeP0NaEifFx5Gygcrx3XdeAg2f12teb6W8aS5xv2pM5WiNJ8KklnFul6m0BgNvyTGGqHvcyBi95xOaUpNtFsX2scwBfhhSlQEbLMeizX2EzYMw4UwEYuCQ45HislNeyD5EPiSRDu1uoysCrIrTQwT3PPg60ESZTHd%2BmrLUCkwUtufMOd%2FZeMxDmdYmFD0Zfb4Wx%2FZzbBdWAUqpimXGNlG2UjweoUcq4qS5QQretpNmifD5cD7Gar6Ot20rFf%2BQlE1o3JXVZ0EwMqklXlMEwBXWRqpnIRjsQTcPAqoo3xhoPfWrj7MoIxnQbuNek%2BEXLGiu4SUHFtxjoM3xHXkv%2FmlDD4Ktl3X3FSB2Y6265M08mVZoE0f5tFLXKz5elb2oZyFszwtNlSsxpPkD4KEvY6cH7toxl9y34nfYwzxJNy9v8gGnG36LVybo0UZxMeMSMM200tMGOpoBfMCpCclqEYRm3jCtmdP1oWlMjuHznueZPmrE6tXiyVtnxFluXh1fd5fY2BuexTru1aNWwxWT%2BTyut%2Bepe11tG6Q0Mnbp1288WCtxTuDtTg2tdIuNCgRHMCb9tqydmCX%2BGUbmoartXNB3dgWipnWDhQ%2Bb5drsQzPnMAxphHnzEeQ8I2MsuV9H2fDzbkQCHWBJ%2FLd2zfmZETk6Rg%3D%3D&Expires=1786027586
[2] Kanchanaburi War Cemetery https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2017100/kanchanaburi-war-cemetery/
[3] 5th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_Searchlight_Regiment,_Royal_Artillery
[4] 5 Searchlight Regiment RA https://ra39-45.co.uk/units/searchlight-regiments/5-searchlight-regiment-ra
[5] 2nd Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Searchlight_Regiment,_Royal_Artillery
[6] Burma–Thailand Railway https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/burma-thailand-railway
[7] Kanchanaburi Memorial | Cemetery Details https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2017101/kanchanaburi-memorial/
[8] Tracing unknown Regiment in Burma 1943-45 https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/tracing-unknown-regiment-in-burma-1943-45.58709/
[9] Kanchanaburi War Cemetery Thailand https://dyingtogetin.com/kanchanaburi-war-cemetery-thailand/
[10] 5th Searchlight Regiment, Royal Artillery https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/allied/battalion.php?pid=5527
[11] 28th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery https://burmastarmemorial.org/archive/stories/1405862-28th-field-regiment-royal-artillery
[12] “FREEING THE DEMONS” – Prisoners of War of the Japanese https://www.pows-of-japan.net/booksetc/NellisComposite.doc
[13] Cemeteries – 2/29th Battalion A.I.F. Association https://www.229battalion.org.au/cemeteries
[14] The 1943 Burma railroad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhnHhaON_j4
[15] List of Prisoners of War who worked on the Burma https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030009604

George William Dynes: Soldier and POW

Gunner George Dynes, a soldier from Kent, served in the Royal Artillery during World War II. Captured in Singapore, he died as a prisoner of war in Thailand on 29 June 1943, at age 26, and is buried at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, highlighting the tragic fate of many POWs during the war.

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Gunner George William Thomas Dynes was a Kent-born soldier of the Royal Artillery who died as a prisoner of war in Thailand on 29 June 1943, aged 26.[file:530] His life connects a childhood in Dover with the fall of Singapore, captivity on the Burma Railway system, and burial at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.[file:530][web:534]

Gunner G. T. Dynes, Royal Artillery, died in captivity on 29 June 1943 and now rests at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission and family report

Early Life and Family

George William Thomas Dynes was born on 20 March 1917 in Dover, Kent, the son of George Dynes and Emily Goddard.[file:530] A census-style residence record shows him living at 6 Devonshire Road, Dover, on 19 June 1921, aged four years and three months, still recorded as the son in the household.[file:530] These details place him firmly within the working-class neighbourhoods of Dover in the years after the First World War.[file:530]

He later married Lydia Annie Shaw Parker in Dover about June 1937, and the report notes that the couple had no children.[file:530] By the time of the Second World War, Lydia was living at 2 Fifth Avenue, Garston, Watford, which was also the address used for the notification of his death.[file:530] The family report identifies him as the husband of a fifth cousin once removed to the researcher, showing that his memory survives within an extended family network.[file:530]

Military Service

Dynes served as a Gunner in the Royal Artillery, with service number 6285850.[file:530] His sub-unit was the 85th Anti-Tank Regiment, a formation trained to deal with enemy armour and support infantry operations with direct anti-tank fire.[file:530][web:534] He also qualified for the 1939–45 Star and the War Medal 1939–1945, which were awarded for wartime service in overseas and operational theatres.[file:530]

By 1939 he was already in Singapore, and by 1941 he had returned to Kent, suggesting a career soldier or serviceman moving within the empire before the Pacific war reached the British garrison.[file:530] His Japanese POW record describes him as a British gunner from Dover, occupation “Regular Army”, confirming that he was serving full-time rather than as a short-term recruit.[file:530] That background fits the profile of many Royal Artillery men sent to reinforce Malaya in the final months before the Japanese attack.[web:534][web:536]

The 85th Anti-Tank Regiment was in Singapore to help defend the garrison against Japanese armour and assault, but it was overwhelmed in the fall of Malaya.

Regimental history and Malaya campaign sources

Unit Context at Time of Death

The 85th Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery was formed in Britain in 1941 and sent to Malaya as part of the emergency reinforcement of the Singapore garrison.[web:534] The regiment was diverted from an original Middle East deployment and reached Singapore in January 1942, where it was attached to defensive operations against the Japanese advance.[web:531][web:534] Its anti-tank guns were intended to help stop armoured thrusts and protect key positions during the fighting for the island.[web:531][web:536]

During the final defence of Singapore, the regiment was engaged in the Malayan campaign as British and Commonwealth forces tried to hold the island against a much stronger and faster-moving Japanese army.[web:531][web:545] The 85th Anti-Tank Regiment fought in the desperate last phase of the campaign, then shared the fate of the garrison when Singapore surrendered on 15 February 1942.[web:531][web:534] Survivors were taken prisoner, and many were later transferred to labour camps connected with the Thailand-Burma Railway, where disease, exhaustion and starvation caused enormous loss of life.[web:531][web:534]

Dynes’s military service record shows that he was reported missing on 15 February 1942, with the War Office casualty list noting him in April 1942.[file:530] His Japanese POW record then confirms capture in Singapore on 15 February 1942 and transfer to Thailand, indicating that he survived the surrender only to enter one of the harshest prisoner-of-war systems in the Far East.[file:530] The unit context is therefore essential: he was not simply a casualty of battle, but part of a regiment broken in the fall of Singapore and then consumed by imprisonment.[file:530][web:534]

Circumstances of Death

Gunner George Thomas Dynes died on 29 June 1943 in Thailand, while still a prisoner of war.[file:530] The Japanese record marks him as deceased and indicates that notification of his death was sent, confirming that his family in Britain was informed through the official channels available to the War Office and the Japanese records system.[file:530] The report does not name a specific camp, but notes markings suggesting internment in Thailand, probably within the Burma Railway complex.[file:530]

The Burma Railway, often called the Death Railway, became notorious for extreme labour, disease and malnutrition among Allied prisoners forced to build and maintain the line.[file:530][web:534] Men from Singapore were commonly moved north into Thailand and Burma after capture, where conditions were markedly worse than in the transit camps.[web:534] George Dynes’s death at age 26 therefore belongs to the wider tragedy of the Far East prisoner-of-war experience, in which many servicemen died long after the fighting that had first taken them captive.[file:530][web:531]

Burial and Commemoration

Dynes is buried in Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand, in Plot 2, Row Q, Grave 46.[file:530] The grave inscription recorded in the family report reads: “6285850 GUNNER G. T. DYNES ROYAL ARTILLERY 29TH JUNE 1943 AGE 26 TREASURED MEMORIES OF A LOVING HUSBAND,” a personal memorial that places his wartime identity beside his family role.[file:530] The cemetery is the principal Commonwealth burial ground for prisoners who died during imprisonment on the Burma Railway system.[file:530]

Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, also known locally as Don-Rak War Cemetery, is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and contains thousands of British, Australian and Dutch war graves.[file:530] It was designed by Colin St Clair Oakes and serves as a central place of remembrance for those who died in Japanese captivity in Thailand.[file:530] For George’s widow and wider family, the cemetery is the final resting place that links Dover, Watford and Thailand through one engraved headstone.[file:530]

Legacy

George William Thomas Dynes’s life was short, but it crossed some of the most dramatic military events of the Second World War: the defence of Singapore, the collapse of the Malayan campaign, and captivity on the Thailand-Burma Railway.[file:530][web:534] His biography is also a reminder that the war reached far beyond the front line, affecting soldiers long after capture and families at home who waited for news.[file:530] The surviving records allow him to be remembered not only as a casualty, but as a husband, son and soldier whose service followed the difficult path taken by the 85th Anti-Tank Regiment.[file:530]

Sources and Further Reading