The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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239892 Pte. Fred Okell Dewison British Army 18th Division Royal Signal Corps from:Billingham My grandfather, Fred Dewison, was a driver in the 18th Divisional Signals. He was a POW in the Far East and worked on the Thai Burma railway. He enlisted at Catterick in November 1940 and sailed from Liverpool to Nova Scotia on the Reno del Pacifico on 28th of October 1941. Here he was transferred to the USS Wakefield (formerly the Manhattan) and finally arrived in Singapore on 29th of January 1942 (via Capetown and Bombay). He was captured by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore on 15th of February 1942 and was imprisoned in Changi until he was transferred to the railway, as part of Overland Letter Party O, on 3rd of November 1942. I am trying to find out a little more about his time on the railway construction and the period afterwards (still in Thailand I believe). He was liberated in September 1945 and discharged in late 1945, following which he spent some time convalescing in hospital in Liverpool. He was moderately disabled as a result of his experiences, but led a full life until his death at the age of 78 in 1986. I guess it's unlikely that anyone will still have recollection of Fred himself, but if anyone has any information about what happened to Letter Party O, I would be very interested. Michael Dewison Add to this record.  Related Content: 18th Division Royal Signals Battle of Singapore Changi Prison Prisoner of War Camp The Burma-Siam Railway Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.