Since the end of the war, I have been asked by the relatives of many of those men and women who are listed as having no known grave, if I could help in finding out what happened and if possible try to locate the last resting place of a loved one. I have in the past gone out to Malaya and Singapore to try and retrace the steps of several of those missing, including men who I personally assisted in burying. In each instance I have been searching for a mound of earth in the place where I knew they had been buried.

It is only recently that I have come to the conclusion that the words "NO KNOWN GRAVE" is a rather misleading metaphor. Many of these men actually have a grave but are listed as unidentified. The very words NO KNOWN GRAVE seems to indicate to those relatives seeking an answer, that nothing remains of their loved one, when in fact fifty per cent or more of those so listed are actually buried in a military cemetery or other consecrated ground. The Singapore government who are currently removing all of the graves from Bididari cemetery have located several unidentified graves.

With assistance from the government and the Commonwealth War Graves commission, most if not all of these unmarked graves can now be identified. Quite recently many young people have sent letters asking for information about uncles and grandfathers who are in this category, and I think we owe it to the families to do our best to locate and identify them now, while there are still some former Far East service men alive, who can give valid information in this quest.

For example, a sergeant in my battalion was killed on the evening of the 13th February and we buried his body at the side of a bridge. Although we placed a marker at the spot, we also roughly measured the distance from the end of the bridge to the place where he was buried in a shallow grave. All through the period as a prisoner of war, I maintained a register of those men I had buried or whose funerals I had attended. approximately 3000.. This list was passed on to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to assist in identifying certain graves. The first person on the list was the sergeant. But when the War Graves commission published these records in 1956, I noted that the sergeant was listed as having no known grave. I contacted friends living in Singapore who assured me that the sergeants remains had been recovered and taken to Kranji cemetery for burial.

The War Graves Commission recovery group recorded every detail concerning each removal .this gave the place where remains were found, if there was any personal items. the date of recovery and the place where the remains were later interred, giving a serial number.

If the War Graves Commission will release to a group of responsible people, all these details I am positive that fifty percent of those marked as having no known grave can be identified, especially in view of the use of DNA testing.

The United States of America war graves department are even today, funding the search and recovery of those of their service men and women still missing.

The War in Malaya and Singapore lasted for seventy days from the 8th December 1941 to the 15th February 1942, The Japanese casualties for this period were not officially issued, but are believed to be in excess of 65,000.( By casualties I refer to the injured and not able to defend themselves, plus those killed). The British known casualties were 7000 known, plus 13,500 missing believed killed in action. This does not take into account the many deserters and men from the Navy who are listed in their home ports and the RAF crews who did not return from their mission.

The main number of missing believed killed occurred at Slim river, Muar river and Singapore. The three main commonwealth war graves at Kranji. Taiping, and Kuala Lumpur are the main military cemeteries which between them contain those men who were killed in action and their bodies recovered and identified a total of 3962 The total number killed in action and having no known grave is 1369, which does not include those who died as prisoners of war.

Add to this those who died in the prisoner of war camps or who died at sea and the total comes to 25,000

The total Allied casualties between 8th December 1941 and 15th February 1942 was 17,631 (Casualties meaning those killed and injured and incapable of continuing the fight) As specified, this figure refers to land based forces only.

Copyright © 2008 MHG