
Obituary for Alf Davey
Alf Davey, 4 Royal Norfolk and FEPOW, died on 31 Aug 2017 aged 97.
He was the last known surviving soldier of 4th Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment, captured in Singapore in 1942.
The father of two spent three and a half years in Japanese captivity, most of it as forced labour on the 258 mile long railway line from Burma to Thailand through near impossible terrain.
For many years, Alf was our 4 R Norfolk Comrades Association ‘Blackburn Rep’.
More than 100 people packed Pleasington Crematorium Chapel to celebrate his life.
The Regiment was represented by the 4 R Norfolk Comrades Association Chairman, WO2 (Retd) Pat Budds.
The photograph is of Alf relaxing in his garden.
Alf was born, educated and worked in Bungay until 1939, when war broke out. He was a Territorial Army soldier, serving with 4th Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regiment, so was mobilised. He spent the majority of the war years as a FEPOW, initially at the Changi POW Camp.
His memoirs, ‘From farm boy to soldier, to prisoner of war’, were published on the website: www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/55/a4050055.shtml
Later, they appeared in 4 parts in ‘The Britannia & Castle’; B&C 114 Jun 2010; B&C 115 Dec 2010; B&C 116 Jun 2011 and B&C 117 Dec 2011.
In his memoirs Alf describes some of the horrors he and his friends endured, seeing nurses raped, doctors bayoneted as they operated and his own colonel being beaten every day for disobeying orders.
‘When you passed a Japanese, even a private, you saluted him. If you didn’t you would be beaten and kicked most mercilessly.’
Alf recalls one of the worst jobs the soldiers endured was building a trellis bridge from green timber around a cliff.
‘We had to drill through the rock, with your mate holding the drill and you striking with a 14 lb hammer. If he was weak he would move and you hit his wrist, sometimes breaking it.
The lads who couldn’t move out of the way fast enough would be blasted to death, but the Japanese just laughed and pushed the dead over the side into the river below.’
Wearing just a loin cloth and clogs made from bits of wood, the soldiers got their own back on their tormentors when they could, Alf recalls them once collecting all the bugs they could find and putting them in the Japanese huts to give them sleepless nights!
Finally, in August 1945 the war was over. Alf declared: ‘Apparently the Japanese had received orders to shoot us all and if the atom bomb had not been dropped, thousands of soldiers would not have lived and I would not be here today to tell my story.’
After a joyous welcome at his Suffolk home he came up north to Blackburn to see Elsie, the girlfriend he had met on a blind date while training to go to war. The couple were married for 52 years.
Said Alf: ‘Her father advised against it ‘cos I wouldn’t last long after what I’d been through but, needless to say, I have out-lived her.’
After being unable to find work post-war in Bungay, he and his wife Elsie returned to Blackburn and Alf found employment with Blackburn Corporation Highways Department. After 14 years of physical labour, he started working for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and worked there for 21 years in the Despatch Department until he took early retirement at age 62 when the Company moved premises.
In retirement he had many interests, his favourite being Trout Fishing. He also loved playing Crown Green Bowls and Indoor Bowls. He loved his garden, growing his own vegetables and giving his produce away to family, friends and neighbours. He also like to bake, cook and socialise, dancing and playing bingo at various Working Men’s Clubs with Elsie They took holidays for many years returning to his home town of Bungay and visited surrounding seaside resorts.
Sadly, Elsie passed away on 6 Oct 1998 after Alf cared for her in the latter years of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Alf was very proud of all his family and would visit as often when he could taking his famous fruit cake, jams and chutneys to give away.
Latterly, Alf lived independently, apart from the family driving him to various social events. He enjoyed eating out, playing bingo and being with family.
Alf is survived by his children Jennifer and Michael; seven Grandchildren: Diane, Warren, Dean, Donna, Janeen, Stuart and Graham; eleven Great-Grandchildren: Lucas, Grace, Joshua, Thomas, Alexander, Sadie, Johan, Milo, Freya, Elliot and Ella.
Jennifer Pickup (daughter) & JLR