Ronald Leslie Durrant

A Private with the 4th Battalion, Ronald died on 12th of September 1944 aged 25.

Ronald was born at Lowestoft on 23 August 1919, a son of Philip Clarence and Eva Durrant. In 1921 his family lived at 14 Tonning Street and by 1939 their home was at 41 Tonning Street and Ronald was a printing compositor.

Ronald 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 at Singapore were forced to surrender and the remaining men of the 4th Battalion went into captivity. 

Ronald was taken prisoner at Singapore and, on 21 October 1942, he was among a party of men taken overland to Thailand to work on the Burma Railway. Once the Burma Railway had been completed British prisoners of war were taken back to Singapore and then transported by Japanese ships to Japan. These ships were known as ‘Hell Ships’.

On 4 September 1944 Henry was one of the prisoners that embarked the ‘Hell Ship’ Rakuyo Maru. The ship was carrying 1,317 British and Australian prisoners when it left Singapore in a convoy bound for Formosa (Taiwan). 
On 12 September the ships were attacked by submarines of the United States Navy and the Rakuyo Maru was sunk. The Japanese survivors were rescued by a Japanese escort ship, but the prisoners were left in the water only aided by some rafts and small boats that had been abandoned. The next day, as survivors were rowing to land, they were attacked by a Japanese ship and around 350 killed. In total 1,159 of the prisoners were killed.