Richard Ormerod

Gunner 834824
88 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour Register records that Richard Ormerod died on 12 September 1944, aged 24.

Richard Ormerod served with 88 (2nd West Lancashire) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery (TA), who arrived in Malaya in November 1941, having earlier fought in France and Belgium, and been involved in the evacuation from Dunkirk.

The Regiment was forced to retreat to Singapore following the Japanese advance through Malaya in December 1941 and January 1942 - falling back from Mantin through Kelantan, the Slim River and Selangor

The Regiment was eventually captured following the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942.

Richard Ormerod was one of 900 prisoners of war being transported from Singapore to Japan on board the Kachidaki Maru, when she was torpedoed and sunk by the USS Pampanito, on 12 September 1944, northeast of Hainan Island off China.

Of the 900 prisoners of war on board the ship, 244 were lost - amongst them Richard.

Richard Ormerod has no known grave, and his name is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial (Column 27).

The Memorial stands in Kranji War Cemetery, 22 kilometres north of the city of Singapore, on the north side of Singapore Island overlooking the Straits of Johore.

The Memorial bears the names of over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land and air forces, who fought the Japanese in South East Asia, and have no known grave. Many of these have no known date of death and are accorded within the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission the date or period from when they were known to be missing or captured. The land forces commemorated by the memorial died during the campaigns in Malaya and Indonesia or in subsequent captivity, many of them during the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway, or at sea while being transported into imprisonment elsewhere.

The Army Roll of Honour 1939-45 Database records that Richard was born and lived in Preston. The Database also notes that he was already serving in the Royal Artillery when the war began on 1 September 1939.