Kitchener Harold Seager
Rank: Private.
Service Number: 5826529
Date of Birth: 1920
Regiment: 5th Bn. Suffolk Regiment
Date of Death: 13 Nov 1943
Age at death: 23
Cemetery / Memorial: Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery
Country: Myanmar (Burma)
Grave / Reference: B3.Z.15
Relatives: Herbert William and Agnes Mary Seager
Address: 17 Angel Street., Hadleigh, Suffolk.
Kitchener Harold Seager was born in the 3rd quarter (July-September) of 1916, the same time that the infamous Battle of the Somme was taking place. This might explain why the lad was named Kitchener, in honour of Lord Kitchener who at the time was a British war hero who helped to build Britains first mass army and became the face of the First World War when he appeared on the famous ‘Your Country Needs You’ poster.
We are not sure when Kitchener joined the Army, but he was a member of the 5th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment. The 5th Battalion were at territorial unit before the war and we know many local young men joined the territorials for a number of reasons; a sense of duty, to seek adventure, to defend the country against perceived threats or simply for comradeship. The territorials also offered a way to serve your country while maintaining a civilian life.
At the outbreak of war the British Army increased the number of divisions in the territorial existing units. The 18th Infantry Division was formed in September 1939 as a second-line duplicate of the 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division, with men from Essex and the East Anglian counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
The Death Railway
Private Kitchener Harold Seager
Kitchener was born into a large family with several older siblings. In 1916 his father, Herbert was 41 and his mother, Agnes was 43 and the family lived at 17 Angel Street. Around that time, the lower part of Angel Street was a densely populated area with many families crammed into a cluster of houses known as City. These houses and other properties between the High Street junction and the Pink House on Angel Street were demolished to widen Angel street in the late 1930s.
The 1911 census shows that Kitchener was joining a large family.
Defensive positions across Singapore Island
After spending nearly two years defending the UK, the Division was deployed, initially bound for Egypt. But when the Japanese entered the war, the Division was diverted to bolster the defences in Malaya & Singapore. Some units of the Division were sent on immediately take part in the fighting in North Malaya. Others like the 5th Suffolks were landed in India to acclimatise. They would then be landed at Singapore on the 29th January 1942, staying on the island and taking a steady toll from the unchallenged Japanese aircraft along with artillery and mortar fire which they lacked the heavy equipment to respond to. With no reinforcements or supplies expected, the situation for the Division was grave and the defenders were forced to fall back on Singapore city.
By the 15th February 1942 along with the rest of the garrison they were ordered to lay down their arms and march into a captivity. Sadly many would not return – it would cost Hadleigh 9 young men - Garnet Allen, Harold Branch, Maurice Cousins, Leslie Durrant, Spencer Durrant, Christopher Fuller, Frederick Oxford, William Oxford and Kitchener Seager from this one Battalion.
