Copyright © All rights reserved.
Frank Thackray
Frank Thackray was born in the first quarter of 1928 and his birth registered in the Malton area. He was the fifth son of Gilbert and Elizabeth Fisher (nee Taylor) Thackray who married in the Newcastle-
Frank will have been called up on his eighteenth birthday either at the end of 1945 or the beginning of 1946 and joined the 1st Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. The Regiment was given the new name of the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment in November 1946 at which time they were serving in Java, mopping up the remaining Japanese forces there.
Frank died on 27th December 1946 and is buried in the Rangoon War Cemetery. This presents an interesting problem as the 1st Battalion was never based in Burma. By 1947 they were back in the United Kingdom, and I can only assume that Frank died while in transit from Java to England.
Rangoon War Cemetery was first used as a burial ground immediately following the recapture of Rangoon in May 1945. Later, the Army Graves Service moved in graves from several burial sites in and around Rangoon, including those of the men who died in Rangoon Jail as prisoners of war.
There are now 1,381 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War buried or commemorated in this cemetery. 86 of the burials are unidentified and there are special memorials to more than 60 casualties whose graves could not be precisely located.
