George William Mace

A Private with the 4th Battalion, George died on 17th of July 1943 aged 29. 

George was born at Kirkley on 14 December 1913, a son of Arthur Samuel and Harriet Mace. In 1921 his family lived at 5 Kendal Road, and this was still the family home in 1939. 

George was working as a general labourer when he enlisted in the Suffolk Regiment, and he was posted to the 4th Battalion. 

In autumn 1939 the 4th Battalion, part of 54 Brigade in the 18th (East Anglian) Division, was on guard duty in the Lowestoft area and from July to September 1940 had various local deployments, including guarding Great Yarmouth. The Battalion then moved to Bedfordshire and then Scotland until April 1941. Next the Battalion moved to Bury, Lancashire, and Hereford, before embarking on the S.S. Andes at Liverpool and sailing for Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Battalion changed ship, to the American liner Wakefield, and sailed for Trinidad and then Cape Town, arriving on 9 December 1941. The Battalion was given three days shore leave.

With the Japanese entry into the war the Battalion was now allocated to the Far East and sailed for India, arriving on 5 January 1942. The Battalion had three weeks of training before embarking at Bombay and sailing for Singapore, arriving on 29 January 1942. The Battalion had orders to defend the Golf Course and then fell back to defend the perimeter before the Singapore garrison was forced to surrender on 15 February 1942. Ninety men of the Battalion were killed, or died of wounds, in the defence of Singapore and 865 were taken prisoner.      

George was taken prisoner at Singapore and he was among a group of men taken overland, on 17 October 1942, to Thailand to work on the Burma Railway. He died at Chungkai from indigestion.