Newcastle Evening Chronicle 10/11/1945

Kanchanaburi Cemetery

Cemetery Entrance

General View

Kanchanaburi Camp

Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-

George Matthew Stewart Ramsey was the son of unmarried mother, Marion Ramsey, born June 10th 1892 at Cowgate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland, daughter of David Ramsey and Margaret Owen.

George was born in the district of Castle Ward, Northumberland during the 4th quarter (Oct/Nov/Dec) 1920 and may have had a brother Gilbert Ramsey born, March 18th 1922. He and his mother in 1939 were living at 87, West Avenue, Newburn, Northumberland, the home of his grandmother, widow Margaret Ramsey and her two sons William Matthew working as a colliery rolley-man, Norman Drummond a builder’s labourer, Gilbert was employed as a market gardener.

During WW2 George Matthew Stewart Ramsey served as Driver T/242498 Royal Army Service Corps, attached to the Royal Artillery, in the Far East and died in captivity as a prisoner of war. It is not known exactly when he was captured but he ended his days at Kanchanaburi Camp in Thailand.

The camp was filled with British, American and Australian prisoners, the latter nick-named it Kanburi. Situated 50 kilometres north of Nong Platuk, most of the prisoners came there after the completion of the Burma-Thailand Railway which had earned the nickname, “Death Railway.” The first British soldiers who had worked on the railway arrived from Changi at Ban Pong railway station in June 1942 and as construction progressed from Singapore and the Dutch West Indies.

The men were housed in open-ended attap huts, Kanchanaburi was considered to be one of the better camps with a fairly regular supply of food but malnourishment and disease were still common as was the mistreatment by the Kempeitai, small stocky policemen with a fondness for torture, who wore dark glasses and swords too big for them. When searching the huts they were unnecessarily destructive and if contraband were found the men would be lined up outside to watch their victim be beaten to within an inch of his life.

Bombing raids at the end of 1944 gave the men hope that the war was going our way and allied planes passed over the camp on their daily sorties to bomb the railway and stores at Ban Pong. Fearing the arrival of the allies the POWs were ordered to dig by hand a ditch 20 feet deep and 30 feet wide around the camp in addition to the bamboo fence, drawbridge and gates.

After the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, August 6 and 9th 1945, Japan surrendered September 2nd 1945. This came too late for Driver T/242498 George Matthew Stewart Ramsey Royal Army Service Corp, as he had died August 28th 1945 and was interred in the camp cemetery at Kanchanaburi his grave marked with a cross.

January 17th 1946 the remains of Driver Ramsey was part of a group removed from their original place of burial and brought the short distance to the newly formed Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand where he is at rest, grave 2. E. 61. At the time of his demise in 1945 he was 25 years of age and single.

His mother Marion paid for an extra inscription to be added to his military marker, it reads, “Deeply Mourned.” The same inscription can be found on her brother Private Charles Albert Ramsey’s grave in France, who died of wounds in 1916 on the Somme, her brother Private George Ramsey was also a casualty of war and died, “at home,” in 1918.

March 14th 1946 at Newcastle, Northumberland the effects of Driver Ramsey of 87, West Avenue, Newburn, in the sum of 304 pounds 19 shillings 3 pence were granted to market gardener, Albert Wescott Harris.

Marion Ramsay died in 1972 aged 80 years registered in the district of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland.

In God’s safe keeping. Rest In Peace.

George Matthew Stewart Ramsey is remembered at Whorlton on W53.02