How to find a civilian death in Singapore in 1941

[theprophetess]

My ancestor was a Civil Engineer in Singapore in 1941 and then nothing more is heard of him. Is there any way of finding out when he died? Thank you for any help!

[dawnsh]

Hi

FindMyPast have the GRO British Nationals died overseas index 1818-2005 but that only has deaths registered with the British Consulates overseas.

If he died during the war, then there may not be any records to find. I don't know how good the Japanese were at keeping POW records

Hare you tried civilian deaths on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site?

Dawn

[jorose]

Not 100% percent of the civilian deaths will be at www.cwgc.org but worth checking as a first stop.

The Changi Museum also has a database of civilian internees:
http://www.changimuseum.sg/civilian-internees-database/

If he did make it out during the evacuation there might be an arrival somewhere like Australia and perhaps also a death there before he was able to send word back to family?

[theprophetess]

Thank you, that's very helpful advice. Nothing on CWGC or Changi so I will look into arrivals in Australia - perhaps he got out before the invasion.

[daisy1942]

........ so I will look into arrivals in Australia - perhaps he got out before the invasion.

Australian archive have an accessible list of passenger names for some of the ships involved in the evacuation  http://www.naa.gov.au/  on particular ship that might be of use is SS Zaandam as it has the largest passenger list I have seen, some 600 names.