Leonard John Mean

5955460, Private, 5th Battalion, Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Regiment.

Died on the 21st September 1943 aged 30.

Len lived at “Oakfields” 37 London Road, Stevenage.

The Japanese captured him, along with the rest of the Battalion, during the invasion of Singapore.

The Battalion had sailed from Liverpool in the SS “Reina Del Pacifico” on the 29th October 1941, it’s original destination being the Middle East. On route orders were received diverting the Battalion to the Far East. After a long and arduous journey that had taken them via Halifax, Cape Town & Bombay the Battalion arrived in Ahmednagar on the 29th December.

After three weeks of intensive acclimatisation and training the Battalion embarked on the USS West Point for Singapore where they arrived at dawn on the 29th January 1942, just under two weeks before the island fortress would capitulate to the forces of the Japanese Imperial Army.

He died whilst in captivity and is buried in the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Burma. (B1.M.4.)

Posted in .