Sapper William Harold Grapes

Personal Details

• 1874647 Sapper
• William Harold Grapes
• 1 Malaya Bomb Disposal Company

Died on the 12th September 1944. Aged 29 Prisoner of the Japanese. 1 Malaya Bomb Disposal Company, was part of the Singapore Fortress. In total 42,610 members of the British Army were taken into captivity, 10, 298 died whilst in Japanese hands. Within Kranji War Cemetery stands the SINGAPORE MEMORIAL, bearing the names of over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth land and air forces who have no known grave. Many of these have no known date of death and are accorded within our records the date or period from when they were known to be missing or captured. The land forces commemorated by the memorial died during the campaigns in Malaya and Indonesia or in subsequent captivity, many of them during the construction of the Burma-Thailand railway, or at sea while being transported into imprisonment elsewhere. The memorial also commemorates airmen who died during operations over the whole of southern and eastern Asia and the surrounding seas and oceans. The 107 Commonwealth casualties buried in the grave are commemorated on the Singapore Civil Hospital Grave Memorial. Kranji War Cemetery and the Singapore Memorial were designed by Colin St Clair Oakes. Details taken from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site.