Allen Dunnett

A Private with the 4th Battalion, Allen died on 25 June 1943, aged 21.

Allen was born at Halesworth on 26 July 1921, a son of Frederick and Ethel Maud Dunnett. His family lived at 9 Quay Street, Halesworth. In 1941 Allen married Ivy May Lambert, of 18 Brickfields Cottages, The Street, Somerleyton. 

Allen was a gardener when he enlisted in the Suffolk Regiment. He was posted to the 4th Battalion. 
In autumn 1939 the 4th Battalion 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, Nov 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. The Battalion was part of 54 Brigade in the 18th (East Anglian) Division. 

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.     
 
Allen was initially reported missing at Singapore, 15 February 1942, and was later confirmed to be a prisoner of war in Japanese hands. He was one of a group of men taken overland on 31 October 1942 to work on the Thai-Burma Railway. Allen died from beriberi at Takanoon. In 1946 he was reburied at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery.