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1427508
Gunner
Alexander Gourlay
Known as Alex
1919/08/13 - Born 26 Thompson St, Kilmarnock
Alex was the first born of eight children, to James and Annie Gourlay.
Growing up in tough times, Alex always showed great commitment to his family and, as a boy, he left school to work to help support them through the Depression.
Next of Kin Parents, J and A Gourlay, 8 Thomson Street, Kilmarnock
Royal Artillery
9th Coast Regiment
Southern Area
Service
1938/12/21 - Enlisted
Between the two World Wars there was a major reorganisation of the Royal Artillery, where it had been decided in 1926 that all Home Coastal defence Regiments would become Territorial Army and all overseas units would be Regulars. It is almost impossible to separate the 7th Coast and the 9th Coast Regiments as they worked so closely together.
By 1933 the Coast Defence Unit in Singapore was designated 7th Heavy Brigade RA with 11th and 22nd Heavy Batteries RA and 3rd Heavy Battery HKSRA. In addition the Hong Kong Coast Defences had a Hong Kong Singapore Brigade with its HQ in Hong Kong and 3 Batteries stationed in Singapore - 2nd, 4th and 5th Heavy Batteries RA.
Due to the expansion of Coast Defences in Singapore a new Heavy Brigade, the 9th was raised in 1934 consisting of 7th and 22nd Heavy Batteries. In 1938 the term Brigade was replaced as Regiment.
On the outbreak of War in September 1939 the Singapore defences consisted of:-
- 7th Heavy Regiment RA - 11th and 31st Batteries RA and 5th and 7th Batteries HKSRA
- 9th Heavy Regiment RA - 7th, 22nd and 32nd Batteries RA
In the summer of 1940 Coast Units had their title changed from Heavy Regiments to Coast Regiments. Re-Designated 9th Coast Regiment 14th December 1940.
Both the 7th and 9th Coast Regiments were formed in situ. The 7th lost one of its Batteries to form the 9th Heavy and additional personnel were sent out from the UK to form the extra Batteries.
On the 8th December 1941 the Japanese entered WW2 by bombing Pearl Harbour and attacking Malaya and Hong Kong.
In February 1942 the Singapore Fixed Defences consisted of the following Units:
- Commander Fixed Defences Singapore - Brigadier AD Curtis
- 7th Coast Regiment RA - 11th & 31st Batteries RA 5th and 7th Batteries HKSRA
- 9th Coast Regiment RA - 7th, 22nd and 32nd Batteries RA
- 11th Coast Regiment RA - 8th Coast and 20th Heavy AA Batteries HKSRA
- 16th Defence Regiment RA 966 Battery RA and 967 and 968 Batteries HKSRA.
On the 12th February 1942 the Coastal Batteries were destroyed and at 01.30 hours on the 13th February 1942 the garrison was marched to the Indian Recreation Ground in Singapore where the Unit is formed into an Infantry Battalion and used as support troops.
Singapore Surrender by Leo Rawlings
At 16.30 hours o the 15th February 1942 the Regiment ceased to exist as a fighting unit and was Disbanded - Lost at Singapore.
1942/05/13 - WO 417/40, Casualty List No. 770. Reported ‘Missing’.
1943/09/09 - WO 417/65, Casualty List No. 1234. Previously posted Missing, Casualty List No. 770, 15/02/1942. Now reported a ‘Prisoner of War’.
1945/11/27 - WO417/99, Casualty List No. 1921. Previously reported on Casualty List No. 1234 as Prisoner of War now ‘Not a Prisoner of War’. Previous Theatre of War, Malaya.
Japanese PoW
1942/02/15 - Captured Singapore
PoW No. 10816
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
1943/05/13 - Transported overland to Thailand with ‘H’ Force, train 5
Commander Lt-Col. R.R. Humphries, 77 Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment, RA
New PoW No. I-4912
This was the last of the Work Forces, the Force was made up from those remaining at H.Q.M.C. and Java. The men were sick or wounded.
‘F’ Force cleared the jungle for the track and ‘H’ Force laid the track. ‘H’ Force did not have the deaths which ‘F’ Force had, but the death toll was still very high.
Camps in Thailand:
Tonchan South and Kanchanaburi
1943/10/25 - The tracks from Thailand and Burma were joined near Konkoita, Thailand.
1943, November - Transported back to Singapore
Sime Road Camp
1944, May - Pasir Panjang
1945/09/05 - On Changi Roll
1945/11/02 - Liberated Singapore
General Seishiro Itagaki, Japanese Commander of Singapore, would not accept the surrender. Plus it gave him time to cover up all Japanese Atrocities in Singapore. The allied naval landing force 'Operation Tiderace' were delayed as it was still understood the Japanese would dispose of all the PoWs in Singapore if they landed. Mountbatten ordered British paratroopers into Singapore to protect the camps. To many of the PoWs in Singapore, those red berets of the paratroopers were the first signs that the war had ended. All this delayed organising the PoWs. It wasn't till the 12th September that Lord Mountbatten accepted the Japanese surrender at the Municipal Building. Hospital cases were the first to leave Singapore 1945/09/10 on the HMHS Koroa. They were soon followed by Repatriation ships which started reaching the UK about the 15th of October 1945. Why many of the liberated PoWs on these ships had November on their Japanese Index cards, I don't know as in other areas of the Far East, PoWs were marked as Liberated at their PoW camps with the correct date. Unless General Seishiro Itagaki did not make the cards available when the camps were liberated.
Liberation Questionnaire as filled in by Alex after liberation.
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Pacific Star
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War Medal
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1939-1945 Star
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Post War
Following the war and now as an amputee he took up his former occupation as a brushmaker and married his long-time friend Margaret Proudfoot on Feb 4th 1947.
They had their first son, Alistair, before heading south in search of better pay and work in the Midlands. Settling in Cannock they raised their family with two more children, Ronald and Linda. Alex was a keen gardener who grew vegetables and fruit for the household but his passion was always for his beautiful flowers.
Alex remained with his company as it became part of Slumberland and Dupont group, eventually retiring on ill health grounds. He saw his children marry and start their own families, Ron emigrating to Canada in 1977 with his wife Lynne and their daughter Ethna. In 1978 their second child Phillip was born.
Alex moved to Manchester with Margaret in 1982 to be closer to his family, Linda, Alan, and their daughter Felicity. Sadly in April 1985 his older son Alistair died in a car accident, leaving his wife, Anne and their three children; Richard, Helen and Fiona. Later that year he suffered another loss when Margaret his wife succumbed to cancer.
In December 1985 Alex himself was diagnosed with cancer and underwent major surgery which culminated in the removal of one of his lungs.
After convalescence he moved to Hastings to live with his daughter Liz (Linda) and her daughter Felicity. Liz and her new partner, Rob, gave him another granddaughter, Genevieve, in 1989.
In 1991 they moved to Scotland.
In 1994 his grandson Jordan was born. However sadness was never far away with the tragic death in 1997 of his grandson Richard.
In 1999 his first great grandchild Leighton was born to Felicity, followed by Ethna and Clark’s children, Evan and Gwenyth.
However, typical of Alex, all was not doom and gloom. In later life he shared numerous stories about humorous incidents from his time as a POW. Such stories often involved the stealing of food, usually in the form of scrawny chickens and stolen vegetables. More spectacularly, he earned the nickname “Rustler” by diverting a stray buffalo into the camp, where it was promptly requisitioned and shared by the starving prisoners and their guards!
Alex also regaled us with tales of “fine cuisine”, detailing meals of less than appetising rice bulked up with blades of grass and tasty snake meat.
Over the next few years Alex spent many holidays at the Ancaster BLESMA home at Crieff and enjoyed the area and the company. When his health started to fail and he could no longer cope with the hustle and bustle of family life, he became a permanent resident in 2002.
Alex’s memory and faculties have been slowing failing over a long period of time but he managed to keep a chatty disposition and a twinkle in his eye for the ladies right to the end. Alex was a man with very high principles, who loved his family and also loved to socialise, chat, dance, sing and party.
Alex was father to 3, grandfather to 8, and great grandfather to 4.
For all that happened his attitude was very much positive and optimistic and he would often be heard saying “well we need to just get on with it”. This was a strength that carried him on to a grand old age of 86 years…against the odds.
Information
Rob Kay - Son-in-Law
Andrew Snow - Thailand Burma Railway Centre
Fall of Malaya and Singapore
Thailand Burma Railway
9th Coast Regiment
KEW Files:- WO392/24, WO 361/2229, WO 361/2070, WO 345/21, WO 361/2185, WO 361/1947, WO 361/2060,
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