Percy Conduit from Dunkirk to Chungkai, An emotional journey to the Thai Burma Railway: Romy Wyeth

Percy Conduit was born 8th May 1920, he worked for Mr Norris the Codford baker and was a member of the Territorial Army before the war began. Until he was old enough to join up he was in the local Home Guard. He enlisted in the Royal Signals Corps and was part of the British Expeditionary Force who were evacuated from Dunkirk between 29th May and 2nd June 1940.

After a period of leave Percy in his Wylye Valley village he was Posted the Far East to where he became one of the 16,000 British soldiers captured by the Japanese at the Fall of Singapore in February 1942. Percy was sent up country to work on Thai- Burma Railway. Early in July 1943 he was taken to Chungkai Base hospital suffering from a general debility resulting in chronic diarrhoea and dysentery. Signalman Percy.F Conduit was 23 years old when he died of malnutrition-and vitamin deficiency in the early morning of 11th September 1943. With him when he died his officer reported he was cheerful but not optimistic/ He is buried in Chungkai Military Cemetery North- West Bangkok in present day Thailand.

I first learned of Percy when writing about the men on the WWII Memorial in St Peter’s Church Codford to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of WWII . Both his younger bothers still lived in the village. In November this year my husband and went on a tour of Thailand which included Hellfire Pass and the Thai-Burma memorials and museums. On11th November I found myself at one of the museums sited next to a Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery. I discovered we were a few miles from Chungkai Cemetery. I have visited war graves of men I have written about in Normandy and it is always an emotional experience but for some reason this grave in this place caught me unawares and I became tearful. Our lovely Thai guide found me and immediately arranged for John and I to be taken to on the coach to Chungkai Cemetery while the rest of the group visited the museum. We were alone in the beautiful tranquil cemetery John managed to find the grave and we laid a poppy cross together with my booklet that had Percy’s photo and part of his story beneath his headstone. Percy’s image and story will now be in the archives so he will also be remembered this quiet corner of a foreign field where he is buried.