One fears for the prisoners taken by the Japanese. Gunner Baldwin was being held in Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia).
Gunner Baldwas was the son of of Henry Charles and Martha Baldwin and grew up in Farnborough, Kent. He was married to Winifred Elizabeth Maria (nee Carter) and had one son, Colin. Sadly Horace did not survive the war. He was a prioner of war onboard the Tamahoko Maru when it sank on the 24th June 1944. He was 31 years old.
The ship had been part of a Japanese convoy leaving Koshiki Straits when it was attacked by a US submarine USS Tang. The Tamahoko Maru was carrying allied POWs from camps at Batavia, Java. An escorting whaling ship picked up some survivors, but 35 crewmen and 560 POWs were lost.
He is commemorated at the Singapore Memorial.
Prisoner of War
GUNNER H.C. BALDWIN
Mrs Baldwin of the British Queen, Crofton Road, Farnborough, heard officially on Tuesday that her husband Gunner Horace Charles Baldwin, R.A., is a prisoner of war in the hands of the Japanese in Batavia.
He was reported missing after the fall of Java on March 1, last year.
A popular young Farnborough man – his parents live in Plantation Cottages – Gunner Baldwin married the daughter of Mr Harry Carter, licensee of the British Queen, and they have a little boy Colin. He was educated at Starts Hill School, and used to play football for Farnborough Old Boys’ Guild. In December 1941, he sailed for the East.
“We have three letters from him written on the boat and we heard no more of him until Tuesday,” Mrs Baldwin told the Kentish Times. Gunner Baldwin joined up in 1940.
Sources:
Bromley & District Times, 18th June 1943 (page 5)
Record on the www.cwgc.org
TAMAHOKO MARU – read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?282751
