Benjamin George Curson was born in 1921, the elder son of Benjamin Alfred Richard Curson (1898-1979) and Mary Ann Curson née Bevan (1897-1982). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1921 in the Shoreditch registration district. His brother, Harry Robert Curson (1927-2005) was born on 10 July 1927 in Shoreditch.
Electoral registers from the time of his birth until 1933 show his parents listed at 120 Shaftesbury Street, Shoreditch and from 1935 onwards at 102 New North Road, Shoreditch. On the 1939 England and Wales Register his father was shown as a stoker and a member of the Air Raid Precautions organisation.
He joined the Royal Army Service Corps, service number T/266599, with the rank of Driver. He was later attached to the 85th Anti Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery and was captured and made a prisoner of war when Singapore fell to the Japanese on 15 February 1942. After being marched to Changi prison, he was enslaved and forced to work on the construction of the notorious Thai-Burma Railway.
He died, aged 22 years, on 27 October 1943 from dysentry and malaria and was buried in Grave 368 at the Tasao No.2 Camp, Thailand. On 1 March 1946 his body was exhumed and reburied in Plot 4, Row C, Grave 67, in the Kanburi Military Cemetery, now called the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Sangchuto Road, Mueang Kanchanaburi, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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