Alan Jack Sturman

A Lance Corporal with the 4th Battalion, Alan died on 12th of September 1943 aged 26. 

Alan was born at Oulton on 11 July 1917, a son of John R. and Mary Ann Sturman. In 1921 his family lived at Mill Road Mutford, and this was still their address in 1939 when Alan worked as a grocer’s assistant. In early 1941 Alan married Joan Olive Elsey, this was registered in the Wainford district. Joan lived at Hulver and remarried in 1946.

Alan served with the 4th Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment. In autumn 1940 the Battalion was on coastal defence in the Great Yarmouth area and then moved to Brooke, and then Cambridge. In early 1941 the Battalion was sent to Scotland, then Blackburn, and Ross-on-Wye. On 29 October 1941 the Battalion sailed from Liverpool and landed at Bombay on 29 December 1941 as part of the 18th (East Anglian) Division. On 19 January 1942 the Battalion re-embarked for Singapore and landed there on 29 January 1942. On 11 February the Battalion went into action at the racecourse, before falling back to defend the perimeter. On 15 February the British forces in Singapore were forced to surrender and the remaining men of the 4th Battalion went into captivity.

Alan was taken prisoner at Singapore and, on 9 May 1943, he was among a party of men taken overland to Thailand to work on the Burma Railway. By September 1943 he was at Tasao where he died from malnutrition, diarrhoea and dysentery. He was buried at Tasao No 2 Cemetery and reburied at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in 1946.