Page 26 - QARANC Vol 17 No 2 2019

24 The Gazette QARANC Association
The Kranji
Cemetery
Singapore
On the 1st of July 2019, accompanied by personnel from the British High Commission Singapore, Florence Nightingale scholars, Professor Westwood and three other guests we visited Kranji War Memorial Cemetery to pay our respect to the fallen heroes. We had a service of commemoration followed by lying of wreaths on behalf of the Florence Nightingale Foundation and the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. The site had previously been a military camp. On February 8th, 1942 the Japanese arrived at the mouth of Kranji River which is within two miles of the site where the war cemetery now stands. The evening of the next day, they launched a fierce attack between the river and the causeway.
After the fall of the island the Japanese set up a prisoner of war camp at Kranji and eventually a hospital was set up nearby at Woodlands which was staffed by the British and Australians with the British being the major contributors. Initially a small cemetery was started by the prisoners, which was later enlarged to the Army Graves Service after the re-occupation of Singapore. The Singapore Memorial bears the name of 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth from all three services. Many of them have no known date of death.
Next to this memorial is the Singapore Civil Hospital Grave. In the
To our fallen heroes at Kranji Cemetery: we will remember them
last hours of the battle of Singapore, wounded civilians and servicemen captured by the Japanese were taken to the hospital and the number of mortalities was so overwhelming that they could not be buried individually. An emergency water tank that had been dug in the hospital grounds was used to bury more than 400 civilians and Commonwealth servicemen. After the war, it was decided that identification of the bodies would not be possible,
FNF Scholars, Personnel from the British High Commissioner Singapore and guests at the Kranji Cemetery
so the grave was left undisturbed and has been consecrated by the Bishop of Singapore. We individually went to pay our respects to individual graves, and a few of us managed to visit QAIMNS Sister Mavis Joy Jones’ grave site.
Sergeant Colodia Muzvidziwa
Buried at Kranji Sister Mavis Joy Jones