Herbert Cyril Minister

A Lance Corporal with the 6th Battalion, Herbert died on 22nd of March 1944 aged 29. 

Herbert was born at Wrentham in 1915, a son of Charles and Rose Minister. In 1921 his family lived at Southwold Road, Wrentham. 

Herbert married Eileen Alice Self in 1941. She lived at Kessingland. 

In late 1939 the 6th Battalion was stationed at Sheringham and in spring 1940 guarded the coast from Sheringham to Overstrand. In August 1940 the Battalion moved to Holt and later in the year they moved to Weybourne, and then Swaffham.

The 6th Battalion was part of the 18th (East Anglian) Division and in January 1941 the Division moved to Scotland until April when they moved to Hartford and in August to Knowsley Park, Lancashire.

In October the Division received orders that they were to go overseas and the 6th Battalion embarked on the S.S. Duchess of Atholl, at Gourouk, and sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 27 October 1941. The Battalion, being part of the 53rd Brigade, was transferred to S.S. Mount Vernon and sailed for Trinidad and then Cape Town, arriving on 9 December 1941 and three days shore leave was granted.

On 13 December 1941 they sailed for Bombay but orders came redirecting them to Mombassa and then Singapore, where they disembarked on 13 January 1942. From 16 January they were involved in the battle to save Malaya. 

Herbert was reported missing at Singapore on 15 February 1942. Later it was concluded that he had died at some point between 1 January and 30 June 1944, and later still it was found that he had died from malaria on 22 March 1944. Herbert was buried at Chungkai which was a base camp on the Thai-Burma railway and had its own hospital.