Douglas Carl Miller

A Private with the 4th Battalion, Douglas died on 5th of October 1943 aged 26.

Douglas was born at Lowestoft on 16 July 1917, a son of Herbert and Mary Miller. In 1921 his family lived at 89 Beresford Road. B y 1939 they were living at 133 Saint Peter’s Street and Douglas was a wood machinist’s mate.  

Douglas 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 form 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.

Douglas was taken prisoner at Singapore and, on 8 May 1943, he was among a party of men taken overland to Thailand to work on the Burma Railway. By October 1943 he was at Kanburi where he died from beriberi and dysentery. He was reburied at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in 1946.