Frederick Henry Tonnison

Lance Corporal 6012355 Frederick H Tonnison 2nd Battalion East Surrey Regiment was killed in action in Singapore on 10th February 1942 five days before the surrender to the Japanese.

He was born on 8th November 1920 in Poplar East London and baptised at All Saints, Poplar on 21st of that month. His parents were John Alexander Tonnison and his wife Rose nee Elwell. According to the 1921 Census taken in June of that year John was Russian born in Reval in probably December 1884 or there abouts. Reval is now known as Tallin the capital of Estonia but still retains a sizeable Russian population. According to the census he was naturalised British.

He married Sylvia Rose Elwell at West Ham Register Office on 7th October 1916 according to his World War 1 service record. He was called up for service in June 1918 when he was described as a Russian citizen who had been in Britain for about two years and his job was as a rigger. He served with the 1002nd Russian Service Company when he reached the rank of sergeant. He was demobilised at the end of 1919 and awarded the British War and Victory medals.

Rose sadly died aged 38 on 25th November 1927 from basal meningitis following lobar pneumonia. John remarried in 1929 to Flossie Darley whose real name was Jennie Lydia. At some stage John and Flossie moved to South Woodham Ferrers where, at the time of John’s death on 24th January 1937 from pulmonary tuberculosis, the couple were living at The Bungalow, Alexander Road, South Woodham Ferrers.

Frederick joined the 2nd Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment at the time of his seventeenth birthday in November 1937 when they were based at Colchester. They were subsequently posted to Shanghai, China in September 1938. In August 1940 the battalion was sent to Singapore for combat training. At this time Britain, although imposing sanctions on them for their conduct on the Chinese mainland, was not at war with Japan. The battalion initially spent several months in Singapore before being transferred to Tanjon Pau in the far north of Malaya in February 1941 to join 6th Infantry Brigade of the 11th Indian Division. The brigade also included two Punjabi battalions.

On 7th December 1941 (8th December Malayan time) Japan, without warning, launched an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbour and almost simultaneously launched attacks on Manila in The Philippines, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

On that day they also landed strong forces in Thailand and north Malaya. The British High Command had always thought that it would be difficult for Japan to launch an attack on Singapore through Malaya due to the dense jungle and other unfavourable terrain but they were proved wrong. Along with other allied forces the battalion spent the following days fighting a rear guard action and by 15th December the battalion was reduced to ten officers of captain rank or below plus 260 other ranks and were no longer considered a fighting unit. The 1st Battalion of Royal Leicestershire Regiment had also suffered similar losses with only 150 men remaining and the decision was taken to merge the two into a newly formed British Battalion.

On 25th January 1942 the newly formed battalion was ordered to withdraw towards Singapore. Because of the terrain through mangrove swamps, ditches and quagmires it was decided that all motor transport and artillery was to be destroyed and the withdrawal would have to be on foot. The battalion eventually reached the coast and, after a wait of two days, was evacuated by HMS Scorpion and HMS Dragonfly who transported them to Singapore Harbour.

Because the authorities believed that any attack on the strategically vital naval facilities in Singapore would come from the sea and not through Malaya the north of the island was poorly defended. The battalion was sent to strengthen the defences there. On 31st January the defenders destroyed the causeway linking the island to the mainland but this only delayed the Japanese attack for a few days.

The attack on Singapore commenced on 8th February and on 10th the battalion was in action at Bukit Timah when Frederick was killed near the Chinese High School. The records show that at one time he was thought to have been taken prisoner, then listed as missing but finally posted as killed in action although his body was never identified.

On 15th February the garrison surrendered to the Japanese and subsequently around 85,000 British, Indian and Commonwealth troops became prisoners of the Japanese, in addition to the 50,000 captured in Malay, and were to endure terrible treatment from their captors. The 2nd Surreys lost thirteen officers and 172 other ranks during the fighting and lost a further one officer and 148 other ranks in captivity.

Frederick is remembered with honour on the Singapore Memorial in Kranji War Cemetery which commemorates the 24,319 servicemen who died and remain unidentified.