Pearce W.R. - The OldWinburnians

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Sapper Pearce was the son of Ernest James Pearce and Daisy Edith Pearce, of Wimborne, who enlisted in the army on leaving school.
"Jimmy" as he was known, was at first reported missing but is presumed to have been killed on or shortly after 26th of February 1942. One of a number of men specially selected for evacuation from Singapore shortly before its capitulation,  he subsequently reached Padang, Sumatra, whence he apparently again sailed in one of two ships. One is known to have been sunk with but very few survivors The other one was never heard of again.
He is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial which stands in Kranji War Cemetery, 22 kilometres north of the city of Singapore, on the north side of Singapore Island overlooking the Straits of Johore.
  
This Memorial bears the names of over 24,000 casualties of the Commonwealth Land and Air Forces who have no known grave. Many of these have no known date of death and are accorded, within the records, the date or period from when they were known to be missing or captured.  Before 1939 the Kranji area was a military camp and at the time of the Japanese invasion of Malaya, it was the site of  a large ammunition magazine. The Japanese advanced into Burma on 19th January 1942 and by the 1st February, the British Forces had retreated to Singapore. The enemy crossed the Johore Straits in strength, landing at the mouth of the Kranji River within two miles of the place where the  war cemetery now stands. Singapore fell on the 15th February 1942.