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Auction: 23001 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 176

Four: Aircraftman 1st Class W. E. Morrill, 307 Air Ministry Experimental Station, Royal Air Force, who was Killed in Action on Valentine's Day, 14 February 1942, when the Kuala was bombed and sunk off Pompong Island after their desperate escape from Singapore

1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, in their card box of issue addressed to 'Mrs A. Morrill, Railway St., Rillington, Malton, E. Yorks.' and the Air Ministry Condolence slip in the name of 'Aircraftman First Class W. E. Morrill.', good very fine (4)

Walter Ernest Morrill was born at Rillington, East Yorkshire on 20 April 1917 and by the outbreak of the Second World War he was serving with 307 Air Ministry Experimental Station, Royal Air Force as a Radar Unit at Singapore. They shared the Station with the troops of 250 Mobile Radio Unit and further shared in the frought actions at the start of 1942 when Japanese forces surrounded and swarmed over Singapore. Around 20 men of these two units managed to get themselves onto the steam ship Kuala, which sailed on 13 February 1942 and Morrill was probably present at this time. The ship, under Lieutenant Caithness, was packed with women and children attempting to flee. Her skipper had skilfully avoided seventeen aerial attacks before a bomb scored a direct hit on the bridge and saloon, penetrating the engine room and splitting the boiler. It was every man - and woman - for themselves. Survivors swam from the burning wreck to Pompong Island, but in typical fashion the Japanese took every available opportunity to bomb and strafe those who were in the water and those who had made land. One of those who made it, Dr Chen Su Lan, recalled the scene:

'I saw soldiers throwing into the sea anything that could float - bath gratings, chairs, tables, rattan baskets, empty packing cases, kapok mattresses and so on…around the funnel the fire was leaping and extending. Beyond its devouring and grasping tongues women and children were lining the ship's railings wailing for help which did not come. The majority of them could not swim a stroke and had no life-belts, while the life-boats were used to carry the Europeans particularly the sick and wounded. In my practice I had seen mothers clutching dead babies to their breasts and heard them cry as if their hearts would break. I had heard and seen young wives wailing over their dying husbands so pathetically that even a doctor having seen numerous deaths could not help shedding a tear or two. But I had never heard such mass wailing of hundreds of helpless fellow creatures as they were told to choose between the burning ship and the yawning depth of an unknown sea. I shall never as long as I live forget those tormented screams. They broke my heart. They tormented my soul whenever I recalled them.'

Morrill is commemorated upon the Singapore Memorial and on the Second World War Memorial at Rillington Church; sold together with eight small photographs of RAF scenes, presumably posted to his mother by the recipient.

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Sold for
£100

Starting price
£100