WHEELER, Peter David

Credit: CWGC

Lance Bombardier

9th Coast Regiment

Royal Artillery

Peter was born 1918 in Newport to Harry & Ellen Hilda (nee SMITH) WHEELER of 17 Melbourne Street in the town.

Peter was a regular soldier having joined the Army in 1935. His Regiment was captured in the fall of Singapore on the 15th of February 1942. Peter was being held as a Japanese Prisoner of War when he was killed on the 12th of September 1944. It appears Peter was being transported to another location by sea, when the ship sank, from a torpedo from a US Submarine. Peter was aboard either the Rakuyo Maru or the Kachidoki Maru, carrying more than 2,000 allied prisoners, unbeknown to the Americans.

Peter is commemorated by the Commission on the Singapore Memorial to the Missing together with over 24,300 of his Second World War comrades. Peter was 28.

Peter is also remembered on the Newport Borough War Memorial.

CWGC Casualty Record

Cemetary

Sons & Daughters Commemorated Far From Home

Those from the Newport & Carisbrooke area who are buried or commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission outside of the area, both in the UK and in other countries.

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The image is of the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery & Memorial in Belgium.