Uncle Fred

Life History

Other facts

Notes

• During World War 2 Fred served in the army in Singapore and was seriously injured stepping on a land mine.
  He was hospitalized and it was during this time that the Japanese invaded Signapore forcing the army to surrender - he was captured, taken by hellship to Japan and forced as a POW to work on the Burma railway.
  During the 2 week period when the Japanese bombarded Singapore his Brother Arthur was onboard the Light Cruiser HMS Dragon D46 off the coast of Signapore, as part of the fleet attempting to stop the Japanese invasion.
  After the end of the war he returned to England via America ... he never spoke about any of this.
  The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore.
  Singapore was the major British military base in South East Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East".
  The fighting in Singapore lasted from 31 January 1942 to 15 February 1942.
  It resulted in the fall of Singapore to the Japanese, and the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.
  About 80,000 British, Australian and Indian troops became prisoners of war.
  Winston Churchill called the ignominious fall of Singapore to the Japanese the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British history.
  Many of the British and Australian soldiers taken prisoner remained in Singapore's Changi Prison.
  Many would never return home.
  Thousands of others were shipped on prisoner transports known as "hellships" to other parts of Asia, including Japan, to be used as forced labour on projects such as the Siam–Burma Death Railway and Sandakan airfield in North Borneo.
  Many of those aboard the ships perished.
  The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway is a 415 km (258 mile) railway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar).
  Built by the Empire of Japan during World War II using forced labour, to support its forces in the Burma campaign.
  About 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway - of these, around 16,000 Allied POWs, including 6,318 British personnel died as a direct result of the project.
• Name: John F Rippington
  Mother's Maiden Surname: Allen
  Date of Registration: Jan Feb Mar 1922
  Registration district: Newmarket
  Registration county: Cambridgeshire/Bedfordshire, Huntingtonshire, Northhamptonshire
  Volume Number: 3b
  Page Number: 790
• Death Record Name  John Frederick Rippington
  Year of Registration  2006
  Month of Registration  July
  Registration District  Bury St. Edmunds
  Registration County  Suffolk
  Date of Birth  17 February 1922
  Volume Number  7421C
  Volume Page  C37D