Neville Francis Grice

A Driver with 18th Division Headquarters, Neville died on 17th November 1942 aged 25. 

Neville, who was often known as Frank, was born at Saxmundham on 8 June 1917, a son of Francis William and Muriel Jennie Grice. In 1921 his family lived at Seafield, The Esplanade, Lowestoft. By 1939 his parents were living at Rockhill, Beach Road, Kessingland. 

In 1939 Neville was living at 66 Stowmarket Road, Neeham Market, and he was a hairdresser. 

Neville enlisted in the Royal Engineers at Cambridge on 16 February 1940. By late 1941 he was attached to the 18th Division Headquarters. Neville’s unit embarked in October 1941 bound for Egypt, but, en route, their destination was changed to India and from there they were sent to Singapore, with various elements arriving in late January and early February 1942. Neville was captured at the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. He would, like most of the men of his company, have been held at Changi and sources show that he was in one of the groups of prisoners that were taken overland, on 3 November 1942, to work on the Burma Railway.

Neville died from Diphtheria at Tasao Camp Number 1 and buried there. He was reburied at Kanchanaburi Military Cemetery in 1946.