Robert was the eldest son of Robert and his wife Hannah (nee Osborne). He was born in Melton on 20th February 1922 and in 1939 the family were living at 9 Council Houses, Melton. Robert’s father had served in the First World War with the Royal Army Medical Corps.
Robert enlisted into the 4th Battalion Suffolk Regiment in 1938 and when the war broke out, he was immediately called up. After “Home Service” in Britain, the battalion was posted overseas – the initial destination was Egypt but instead were sent to Singapore. They arrived at the end of January 1942, to help bolster the garrison there.
On 15th February 1942, barely two weeks after the battalion disembarked, Singapore was surrendered to the Japanese and Robert, along with his companions, became Prisoners of War. Robert was first taken to Changi Camp on the northeast coast of Singapore Island. The prisoners held on Singapore Island were deployed as forced labour to various Japanese projects. Each project was allocated a “Force” and Robert was assigned to either “F” or “H” force who were destined to work on the Burma Railway.
Robert died while building the Burma railway and is buried at Changkai War Cemetery in Thialand. His parents had the following personal inscription added to hie headstone:
“The soldier sleeps, his duty done. With the dawn his last long fight was won”
Chungkai was one of the base camps on the railway and contained a hospital and church built by Allied prisoners of war. The war cemetery is the original burial ground started by the prisoners themselves, and the burials are mostly of men who died at the hospital.