Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore
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Before 1939 the Kranji area was a military camp and at the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya, it was the site of a large ammunition magazine. On 8 February 1942, the Japanese crossed the Johore Straits in strength, landing at the mouth of the Kranji River within two miles of where the war cemetery now stands. On the evening of 9 February, they launched an attack between the river and the causeway. During the next few days fierce fighting ensued, in many cases hand to hand, until their greatly superior numbers and air strength necessitated a withdrawal. After the fall of the island, the Japanese established a prisoner of war camp at Kranji and eventually a hospital was organised nearby at Woodlands.

Singapore Civil General Hospital Memorial

The Cross of Sacrifice with the Memorial and Pylon behind

During the last hours of the Battle of Singapore wounded servicemen taken prisoner and civilians massacred by the Japanese were brought to Singapore Civil General Hospital in their hundreds. Many were already dead on arrival, many more succumbed later, and the number of fatalities was such that burial in the normal manner was impossible. Before the war an emergency water tank had been dug in the grounds of the hospital, and this was used as a grave.

After the reoccupation of Singapore, the small cemetery started by the prisoners at Kranji was developed into a permanent war cemetery by the Army Graves Service when it became evident that a larger cemetery at Changi could not remain undisturbed. Changi had been the site of the main prisoner of war camp in Singapore and a large hospital had been set up there by the Australian Infantry Force.

 

THE GREAT 'WINGED' MEMORIAL

On the walls of the memorial are inscribed the names of 23,943 men and women who have no known grave. At one end of it is a separate small memorial commemorating 107 men who died in captivity and are buried in a single grave in the grounds of Singapore Civil General Hospital; at the other end a similar memorial bears the names of 255 men buried in isolated places in Malaya whose graves cannot be maintained. A further memorial in the cemetery commemorates 789 officers and men of the Indian army whose remains were cremated.

The Memorial bears the following inscription:

1939 - 1945
ON THE WALLS OF THIS MEMORIAL ARE RECORDED
THE NAMES OF TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND SOLDIERS AND AIRMEN
OF MANY RACES UNITED IN SERVICE TO THE BRITISH CROWN
WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN MALAYA AND NEIGHBOURING LANDS AND SEAS
AND IN THE AIR OVER SOUTHERN AND EASTERN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BUT TO WHOM THE FORTUNE OF WAR
DENIED THE CUSTOMARY RITES
ACCORDED TO THEIR COMRADES IN DEATH

THEY DIED FOR ALL FREE MEN

 

 

The Singapore and Hospital Memorials, Kranji

 

The name of James Alexander Barclay.

These words are inscribed on the Memorial:-

THE SOLDIERS WHOSE MEMORY IS HONOURED HERE
PERISHED IN CAPTIVITY IN FEBRUARY 1942 AND LIE
BURIED IN ONE GRAVE IN THE GROUNDS OF SINGAPORE
CIVIL GENERAL HOSPITAL