Straits Settlement Volunteer Force
Born: October 2nd 1914
Died: 28th June 1943
Age at Death: 28
Died in a prison camp in Thailand.
1st 15 1930-1931
Guardian: J P Clark, Worthing
Dennis was born in Worthing on 2 October 1914 to Alice and John Clark. He joined Brighton College as a boarder in the Sixth Form. He was a member of the 1st XV and was described in the January 1932 issue of the Brighton College Magazine as:
[having] improved, and is at times a really good player, though variable. He opens up the game well and has a strong cut through, but he must learn to collar low and with determination.
At some point after his time at the College, he appears to have emigrated to the Straits Settlements, a group of British colonies in south-east Asia, now largely in Malaysia, since he joined the Straits Settlement Volunteer Force fighting in Singapore.
Clark was captured on the fall of Singapore to the Japanese in February 1942, and enlisted as forced labour to build the Thai–Burma Railway, known as ‘The Death Railway’, living on meagre rations. He died of unknown causes in Thailand on 28 June 1943, and is buried in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery in Thailand.
To mark Remembrance in 2023, pupils and staff from Brighton College Bangkok visited Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, and left a poppy wreath in Dennis’ memory.
