Source: Leicestershire War Memorials Project.
Frederick Donald Hughes "Don" Robinson was born on 29/12/1915, son of George and Nellie nee Hughes. The birth was registered in the Lutterworth Area in 1916.
In March 1932 Don was appointed as a postman at Leicester.
By mid 1939 Don was employed as a Sorting Clerk and Telegraphist for the Post Office and lived with his parents at 60 Harrow Road, Leicester but he transferred in the same role to Northampton GPO in October 1939.
He enlisted in the Army and (to use his experience as a GPO Telegraphist) became Signalman 2591866 in the Royal Corps of Signals and was posted to the Far East, Malaya, as part of 18th Divisional Signals.
He was captured by the Japanese Forces at the Fall of Singapore, on 15/2/1942 (or 17/2/15 in the Japanese system - 17th year of Showa era.) and is believed to have worked on the Burma Siam railway construction, under what are now known to have been brutal and inhumane conditions. It was 6 months before his family received notification that Don was a Prisoner of War. It is understood that Don had sisters, one in Barking and one in Rugby; the latter attended at least one of Northampton Post Office's monthly "Tea Time Chat" meetings for families of staff in the Services. Don was able to send a few postcards to family and friends, one stating that he was "well and working for money in Thailand"... The last one received bore the date 6/6/1944.
On 12/9/1944, Don was amongst some 900 British P.O.W.s aboard the Kachidoki Maru, being transported from Malaya to Japan. The ship was part of a convoy, HI 72, sighted by United States Navy Submarines and late in the evening USS Pampanito, unaware that Allied P.O.W.s were aboard ships in the convoy, attacked launching three torpedoes, two of which struck the Kachidoki Maru one astern and one amidships. She sank near Hainan Island.
The Kachidoki Maru was built by New York Shipping Company in Camden, New Jersey and originally named ‘President Harrison’, then, having been captured, the Kakku Maru before Kachidoki Maru. The ship was 524 feet overall length with a displacement of 10,500 tons and was painted battle grey, flying the merchant marine flag, which was a red ball in the centre of a white field. It had no red cross markings.
There were 515 survivors, those who abandoned ship at the earliest opportunity, were picked up by other vessels in the convoy but Don was amongst those 415 lost. Some survivors were picked up by U.S. Submarines and were amongst the first to tell of the horrors of the Railway.
The Rakuyo Maru carrying Australian and British P.O.W.s in the same convoy was torpedoed and sunk by U.S.Submarine Sealion with even more fatalities.. At least 1500 P.O.W.s died in total.
The ships conveying P.O.W.s to Japan have been called "Hell Ships", but of course the prisoners had already endured hell working on the railway, and some who reached Japan would endure it in a different form.
Don Robinson is Commemorated on Column 45 of The Singapore Memorial.
Don's mother was only notified that he was missing following a ship sinking in February or March 1945.
(Information from D Thacker, 31/08/22)