Corporal William Dickenson

Little Thetford Second World War veteran Corporal William Dickenson, 91, with eleven of his colleagues, was honoured by Cambridge city for a second time at a tribute reception in the Guildhall on Thursday 17 February 2011. The event, hosted by the mayor, Sheila Stuart, was last held sixty-five years ago at a civic reception to honour the courage of Cambridgeshire Regiment survivors following their return from Japanese captivity.

A special motion proposed at a council meeting on Thursday evening by Councillor Lewis Herbert and Councillor Clare Blair praised the heroism of the veterans. In part it read “The council joins with [the veterans] in remembering and paying tribute to their many other comrades from that time from Cambridgeshire and beyond who died or suffered due to horrific mistreatment between 1942 and 1945”. Private Alfred Yarrow of the 5th Battalion Suffolk Regiment, son of Laura Yarrow of Little Thetford, died in captivity on Sunday 27 June 1943, aged 23. He is buried in the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Kanchanaburi, Thailand.

An article on our web site, the War Story of William Dickenson, records the period from his 1940 conscription into the 4th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment until his repatriation from Changi prison camp in 1945.

See also a video interview between Cambridge News reporter Chris Elliott and veterans William Dickenson and Les Philips