No.5828369, Private, Sidney John WOOLLEY
Aged 24
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Born in 1920 3rd qtr 1920 Bury St.Edmunds 4a:1903, son of Bertram Henry and Florence Mabel WOOLLEY (née GOOCH). In the 1939 register his widowed mother (a waitress) was at 2 Etna Road with his uncle Victor GOOCH |
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He was captured at the surrender of Singapore to the Japanese on 15th February 1942.
He was part of a group to be sent to Borneo on the Hofuku Maru. This old ship was forced to call in at Manila, where it waited for a month with the prisoners still kept below in the hold, many dying of starvation and disease. Eventually,on September 20, 1944, the Hofuko Maru [KA-27] (with 1,289 prisoners on board) and 10 other ships formed Convoy MATA-27, and sailed from Manila for Japan. The following morning, the convoy was attacked by an American aircraft carrier about 80 miles north of Corregidor, the aircraft carrier’s planes sunk the whole convoy. Of the 1,289 British and Dutch POWs on board the Hofuku Maru, 1,047 died.
click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details |
