Patrick Clare Smith

A Sergeant with 148 (The Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment, Patrick died on 24th of July 1943 aged 37. 

Patrick was born at Druncliff (sic), County Clare, Ireland, on 2 January 1906, a son of Jonathan and Sarah Ann Smith. Patrick’s father had served with the Royal Artillery for 27 years and volunteered to rejoin the artillery in 1914 and served throughout the First World War. In 1911 his family lived at 4 Ashby Road, Lowestoft, and this was still their address in 1919.  

In 1934 Patrick married Gladys Woodrow Kemp, this was registered in the Mutford district. By 1939 their home was at 13 Grosvenor Road and Patrick was a cinema commissionaire. 

Patrick was working as a sawyer when he enlisted in the Royal Artillery at Bury St. Edmunds on 4 February 1924. He joined to serve six years with the Colours and six with the Reserve and joined the Army Reserve on 30 April 1930. 
Patrick was working as a labourer when he again volunteered to serve with the Royal Artillery and during World War Two was posted to 148th (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment. 

At the start of World War Two his Regiment was assigned to the 18th (East Anglian) Division. In June 1941 the Regiment was at Rochdale. In December 1941 they arrived in India and by February 1942 at Singapore. 
Patrick was captured at the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. He was in a party of men taken overland from Singapore, on 14 October 1942, to work on the Burma Railway. In July 1943 he was at the Tonchan South camp, and he died form cholera. Patrick was reburied at Kanchanaburi in 1946.