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Killed in Action
288 Field Company
Royal Engineers
History
Compiled by Ron Taylor
Information from ‘Towards the Rising Sun’ by James Bradley
Into Captivity Singapore
15th February 1942 - 15th August 1945
The 288 Field Engineers destroyed their munitions and equipment before the Japanese reached them, orders were given that officers had to remain with their men.
The Long March to Changi
by Leo Rawlings
On 16th February orders were given for the long march to Changi. Local Population lined streets of the march, some waving Japanese flags.
On arriving at Changi the area was deserted and the buildings, although looted, were in good order. As there was poor sanitary and no water supply, the sappers were put to work as the camp was to house about 47,000 PoWs. Bamboo frames were built and covered with canvas, tarpaulins or anything to provide cover.
After a week the British food which had been salvaged by the camp began to run out, so the men were put on short rations. Fear of disease was a major problem for the medical staff, so orders were given that all water was to be boiled before drinking.
Because of the bloodshed in Singapore, the Japanese started organising work parties to remove the bodies. On the 13th March, Major W A J Spear and Second Lieutenant B McD Buchanan commanded a 288 Field Company work party from Changi to the River Valley Road camp and from the camp the Sappers worked throughout Singapore Island and Johore. Twelve bodies at a time were placed in lorries and it was not just those killed in the fighting and bombing.
Sook Ching
by Ronald Searle
The Japanese trucks were full of Chinese bodies, who had been made to march down towards the sea and machine-gunned. It is believed about 7000 Chinese were massacred by the Japanese in the ‘Sook Ching’, which is a Chinese term meaning "purge through cleansing".
By the end of month dysentery was breaking out as the sanitary conditions were poor and signs of Beri Beri were seen.
The Japanese, with so many prisoners at their disposal, started using the PoWs as slave labour in Singapore City, clearing it up from the after effects of the Battle of Singapore. Then in May rumours were being turned into reality when PoWs were being transported to farther away destinations. Many of the 288 Field Company were to be entrained to Thailand in June with the promise of more food and better accommodation, this group was part of the June Mainland Parties.
Lych Gate
Lych Gate
Designed by Captain Cecil Pickersgill
Captain Cecil Pickersgill of the 287 Field Company, Royal Engineers designed a Lych Gate, to mark the resting place of those who died as PoWs and Internees at Changi. The design was based on his own church in Startforth, County Durham.
The 18th Division Royal Engineers, who were PoWs at Changi, built the gate in 1942 at the entrance to the graveyard. A rose, thistle, daffodil and shamrock were carved by Sergeant Mercer into the four corners of the eves to commemorate the prisoners of the four British Isles countries buried there.
Captain Pickersgill died of malaria in 1943 while in Thailand working on the Thailand-Burma Railway.
The Lych Gate was re-erected at St George’s Garrison Church at Tanglin Barracks, Singapore in 1952. but after the British withdrew from Singapore in 1971, the Lych Gate was transported to Bassingbourn Barracks, Cambridgeshire. After being refurbished it was re-erected at the Arboretum by the 39th Engineering Regiment.
Death Roll
Singapore PoWs
15th February 1942 - 15th August 1945
Please click on the  next to each date below to extend information
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Died
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Name
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Service/No
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1942/02/25
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Carey, Clarence S. C.
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2075850
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1942/05/07
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Flanigan, Michael Joseph
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2003239
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1942/07/17
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Cletheroe, Kenneth
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2074510
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