In memory of Donald Sargent
Donald Sargent was born in Llandudno, the eldest son of William and Elsie Sargent who owned ‘Sargent’s Radio’ – a radio dealership in the town centre. The family lived on Bryniau Road, writes Adrian Hughes.
Known as Don, he volunteered to join the Royal Air Force and, with his experience from his father’s motor boat, was posted to the air force’s search and rescue service. He was sent to the Far East and to RAF Seletar at Singapore. There he served aboard fast motor launches tasked with rescuing downed aircrews.
At the fall of Singapore in February 1942, Don and his crew were ordered to take their launch and try and make their escape from Singapore as best they could. They were captured in the Bangka Strait, off Sumatra, by the Japanese Navy and imprisoned.
Don was held at a prisoner of war camp on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and for three and half years toiled alongside Dutch and Australian captives building an airport and harbour at Pelambang. Conditions were horrific. Their Japanese captors were sadistic and violent, and the environment was hostile.
Many men perished of disease, including Don. He died of beri-beri – a vitamin B1 deficiency caused by an inadequate diet – and of tropical ulcers just 11 days before the end of the Second World War. Aircraftman 1st Class Sargent was buried near the Sungei Ron prisoner of war camp at which he had been imprisoned. After the war his body was later reinterred at Jakarta War Cemetery.
Return to Llandudno war memorial page
Return to Welsh Prisoners of War history page
