Harold Hume

A Private with 6th Bn. Harold died on 1st of August 1943 at the age of 27.

Harold was born at Lowestoft on 16 August 1914, a son of William Charles and Harriet Hume. He was baptised at Saint Margaret's Church on 3 September 1914 and his family lived at 81 May Road. 

In 1941 Harold married Norah May Catchpole. Their marriage was registered in the Stafford district. In the mid-1940s Norah lived at Walton, Stone, Staffordshire.  

Harold was working as a cocktail barman when he joined the Army. 

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. 

Harold was reported missing at Singapore on 15 February 1942 but the official casualty list number 1881, of 11 October 1945, gave acknowledgement that he had died on 1 August 1943 while a prisoner of war in Japanese hands. 

Harold died at Tamakan, or Tha Makhan. In October 1942 the prisoners at Tamakan were given the task of building bridges over the River Kwai. This activity was made famous in the book, and film, The Bridge Over the River Kwai. 

See: Tamakan (britain-at-war.org.uk)

Harold was buried at Tamakan Main Cemetery and in January 1946 reburied at Kanchanaburi.