Two and a half years into the Second World War, Singapore, the Malay Peninsula island fortress considered impregnable by our military commanders, fell into the hands of the Japanese, and so began a horrifying ordeal of captivity for hundreds of men from the Cambridgeshire Regiment.

The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the regiment were both heavily involved in the fight to fend off the Japanese, who contrary to expectation, attacked Singapore not from the sea, but overland, through jungle and mangrove swamps. Taken by surprise, the Cambs men fought bravely, but on February 15, 1942, the island fell, and they were marched away to be incarcerated in camps, and subjected to every kind of hardship imaginable – starvation, slavery, torture, and disease.

British troops surrendering to the Japanese in Singapore (Picture, IWM)

Many were held in the notorious Changi jail, and worked as forced labour on the Railway of Death, the railway the Japanese wanted to build between Burma and Thailand. In April 1943, 7,000 men were marched out of Changi to work on the railway, and when they were marched back to the jail again, in December, only 2,500 were left alive.

One of those to survive was William Dickenson, from Little Thetford, near Ely, known to his comrades as Dicko, serving with the 4th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. Sadly, he passed away just a few weeks ago in his late 90s, but in an interview with me several years ago, he recalled the fateful day he was captured.

He said: “I was aboard a ship close to Singapore harbour when it was attacked by Japanese planes. It began to sink and we were told to abandon ship.

William Dickenson

“I slid down a rope to get off the ship and into the sea, away from the bullets and bombs.

“There were sharks about, but we were lucky. Within about 400 yards of the ship, me and three other blokes were picked up by a small boat and taken ashore.

“Singapore hadn’t fallen at that stage, but it did a few days later, and I was marched into Changi. When we got inside the camp, there was almost nothing, just a few barracks buildings.”

Food, he said, was a bowl of rice, and as they slept, the prisoners had to keep brushing rats off their bodies.

Prisoners at work on the Burma railway

One on occasion, as they worked on the railway, the guards allowed them a break and the starving soldiers waded into a river desperately trying to catch fish with their bare hands. With unbelievable cruelty, the guards threw hand grenades into the water, killing and maiming some of the prisoners.

Some prisoners were taken off to Japan, and imprisoned there, and two men who that happened to were Edward Durrant, of 2 Cambs, and Alexander Angel, of 1 Cambs. Paul Murray, whose father Major F J Murray was the camp’s British CO, is researching what happened there, and hopes local relatives of the two men will email him, at

Paul said: “Both men were killed on a level crossing near the camp by a passenger train. Their deaths ironically came three short months before the liberation of all the camps.”

Their fighting prowess in both the First and Second World Wars won the Cambs men the accolade 'bravest of the brave'.

Littleport VJ Day parade

Martin Boswell, a curator at the Imperial War Museum, set up the Cambridgeshire Regiment Gallery at Duxford in 1997, and is also chairman of the Cambridgeshire Regiment Museum Collection.

He said: “The regiment lost 542 men whilst in captivity as a result of wounds, illness/disease, Japanese contempt, or drowning at sea. In total 810 returned home.

“I knew so many of the lads who fought in the Far East, and now all but one are gone. They were a grand bunch of lads in later life as I knew them, but they never got over the shame of being taken prisoner and I have done my best to ensure where possible that their wider story is not forgotten. They really did triumph over evil, although they didn’t realise it at the time, being more content with day by day survival.

“I think we owe them at least the time to pause, and respect their memory.”