In memory of Ronald Thomas Service Nekrewes

Photo of Ron NekrewesRonald Nekrewes was a teacher at St Julian’s High School in Newport before the Second World War broke out. His parents were Thomas William and Sarah Maria Nekrewes (née Service), of 46 St Julian Street. He had a brother Kenneth and sister Muriel, and lived at the parental home while he was a young schoolmaster.

He enlisted and became a gunner with the Royal Artillery. He became a prisoner of war when Singapore was captured by the Japanese, who sent him to work in the docks in Saigon, Vietnam, for about a year.

He was then moved to work on the Burma Railway, which was built with forced labour through mountainous terrain to enable the Japanese to transport soldiers and weapons between Thailand and Burma. The construction project killed so many people that it was nicknamed the “Death Railway”. It’s thought that around 13,000 prisoners of war died there. About 80,000 to 100,000 civilians from occupied countries are thought to have died while forced to work on the railway.

Ronald died of dysentry on Sunday 26 July 1943 at Kinsayok Jungle Camp. He was 28 years old. His remains were exhumed after the war and reburied at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand. More than 5,000 Commonwealth casualties and almost 2,000 Dutch victims are buried or commemorated there.

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