Have You a Tiger In Your Family?

Rank : Private

Army Number : 4858547

Unit : 1st Bn

Biography :

Enlisted 2.12.1937. Served with Leicestershire Regiment during World War Two. Served with the 1st Bn in Malayan campaign of 1941-42, and was taken Prisoner of War. Listed in the 1st Bn Roll that was kept during captivity as 'believed escaped'. Class 'A' 21.12.1945 and transferred to Section B 27.4.1946

Additional information provided by FEPOW researcher Ken Hewitt
02.12.1937 Pte Smith enlisted with the regiment.
14.09.1938 Posted to Palestine with the 2nd Btn
04.05.1939 Posted to India to join the 1st Btn at Razmak, North-West Frontier
02.12.1939 Moved with 1st Btn to Agra, India. Was with C Company.
02.02.1941 Moved with the 1st Btn to Penang, Malaya.
10.12.1941 Fought with the battalion against the Japanese in the Malaya Campaign.
15.02.1942 Became a Far East POW at the fall of Singapore. Initially held at Changi POW Camp Singapore.
23.03.1943 Transferred to Thailand with D Force to work on the Thai Burma Railway. Assigned to Construction Group I and worked in camps at Matoona and Non Pladuk.
04.12.1944 Escaped from Non Pladuk with Pte Brown during an air raid alert. The two of them trekked north to a Thai village where they were protected by local residents.
28.05.1945 Thai Resistance Movement relocated them to Bangkok before flying them out of Thailand to India. Smith and Brown were two of the very few men to successfully escape from the Thai
Burma Railway.
27.04.1946 Discharged from army service.
Photograph (taken 2010 age 94) provided by family.

Date of Birth : 10.02.1916

Date of Death : 30.08.2010

Place of Death : Derby

Period of Service : 1937 - 1946

Conflicts : WW2

Places Served : Palestine, India & Malaya