3 December 2009

2967616 Pte Robert Dempsey, 2nd Bn, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders

2967616 Private Robert Dempsey of the 2nd Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders was a career soldier who died on the 3rd December 1939; that is, seventy years ago today. He was born in Antrim and living in Ross and Cromarty when he enlisted. At the time of his death he was 40 years old. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission notes that he was the son of Robert and Margaret Dempsey of Ballymena, County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

Robert Dempsey is buried in Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore. There was a military camp at Kranji before Britain went to war in 1939, and presumably Robert was stationed in that area and died as a result of sickness or accident. Kranji (and Singapore) would later fall to the Japanese in February 1942.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (1939-1945 Roll of Honour)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission

No comments: