No.2324228, Signaller, Peter Harold COOK
Aged 25
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Peter Harold Cook was born on 14th June 1918 (Bury St Edmunds Q2-1918 4A:1330) the son of Mary Ann COOK, who married Fred JAGGARD of Burwell in Q1-1921.
It is believed his father [2-4-1883] a widower general labourer was alone at Ness Road Burwell in the 1939 register, his mother having died earlier that year. His father is at Ness Road, Burwell on his PoW card. |
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The British surrendered to the Japanese in Hong Kong on 25th December 1941. That was the day Peter Cook became a prisoner of war. In March 1942 the British government reported that there
were 5,062 British prisoners of war in Hong Kong. In September 1942 the Japanese started moving many prisoners to the Japanese mainland.
Lisbon Maru (KA-24) was a Japanese freighter which was used as a troopship and prisoner-of-war transport between China and Japan. She left Hong Kong on 27th September 1942. When she was torpedoed by USS Grouper (SS-214) on 1 October 1942, she was carrying, in addition to Japanese Army personnel, almost 2,000 British prisoners of war captured after the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941. She sank the following day but over 800 of these men died either directly as a result of the sinking, or were shot or otherwise killed by the Japanese while swimming away from the wreck. The sinking took place about 120 miles SE of Shanghai N 30° 7' - E 123°;3' |
The memorial ( at the far end) is the entrance to the Sai Wan War Cemetery
click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details
