Alfred Edwin Cox
6th. Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment

Early Life

Alfred Cox was born in 1922 the son of William and Sarah Cox of Bisley. He was the brother of Annie (known to her friends and family as 'Nan') who was married to Thomas 'Boyk' Johnson who was also killed in WW2. 

Alfred attended the William Ellis Foundation School in Gospel Oak in North London before joining the County School in September 1937 to study for his Civil Service exams. He left school in June of the following year to work at Westminster Bank in Threadneedle Street, London.

Military Career

On 17 June 1940 Fred volunteered with the Young Soldiers Battalion of the Royal Norfolk Regiment and received his  commission in July 1941.

After two years of training and in reserve 20 year ols Fred left Glasgow for his regiment aboard an American troop ship at the end of October 1941. The long route to the far east was taken via Nova Scotia, Trinidad,. Cape Town and Mombassa and they arrived in Singapore on 9 January 1942. Unfortunately their heavy equipment sailed via Bombay and did not arrive in Singapore until 15 February.

The Norfolks were soon in the front line attempting to halt the Japanese advance along the Malaysian Peninsula. They took part in the rear guard action at the Battle of Maur some 120 miles north of Singapore. It was to be the final battle of the Malay Campaign which subsequently ended with the fall of Singapore.

It is unclear at which point Fred was taken prisoner. The Norfolks retreated to Singapore and were present when it fell on 15 July 1942.

For the next two years Fred was held prisoner at Camp 2 at Songkurai in Thailand. Whilst there he contracted typhoid whilst working on the Burma Railway.

On 4 July 1944 Fred and 1,288 other men were transported to Singapore and marched to the quayside where the Hofuku Mara awaited. The men were British prisoners captured in Singapore and Dutch prisoners from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

The Hofuku Mara was a 5,825 ton cargo ship. She was one of the unmarked PoW transport ships used to take troops and prisoners to Japan - these ships were known as 'hell ships'. Once at sea they were at the mercy from allied attacks.

Hofuku Mara

Once the men had been herded aboard ship all the ladders leading to the upper decks were destroyed and the hatched were battened down. The Hofuku Mara sailed out of Singapore harbour as part of convoy SHIMI-05. The convoy consisted of ten ships, five of which carried a total of about 5,000 PoW's making this the largest shipment of prisoners by the Japanese in WW2. The destination was Formosa (now Taiwan) where the men were to provide slave labour in the copper mines at Takao. It was to be a journey of some 3,000 miles.

The convoy reached Miri in Borneo on 9 July. The Hofuku Mara then left the convoy and sailed on to the Phillipines unescorted. She limped into Manilla harbour on 19 July with engine trouble. She was laid up in the harbour for two months as the engines were repaired. The prisoners were still kept below decks except when receiving rations and they suffered terribly. Heat, hunger and thirst took it's toll. Almost all caught beri-beri or disentery. Those not expected to survive the journey were put ashore to face an uncertain fate.

Some of the sick were operated on below decks. In his book, Hell In Five, Jack Symon a comrade of Fred's in the Norfolk Regiment describes such an incident:

In that time our doctor on board who was Welsh performed an operation on one of our soldiers, something had gone wrong with his insides. This was done by candle light in the hold and we all watched this being done. What an experience that was to see a man's whole stomach just lying there. Fortunately he recovered and great praise was given to our doctor, unfortunately the doctor himself died on that ship.

On 20 September the Hofuku Mara left Manilla as part of convoy MATA-27. Of the eleven ships in that convoy she was the largest and the only one carrying prisoners. The following day the convoy had made slow progress, hugging the coast for fear of an allied attack, they had made just 80 miles.

Fast carrier Task Force TF 38 commanded by Rear admiral Marc Mitscher was the main strike force of the US Navy. Spotter planes from one of her carriers came across the Hofuku Maru convoy on the morning of 21 September and a full scale attack was soon launched. The Hofuku Maru presented a large target for the force of almost 100 torpedo bombers. She was attacked and split in two sinking in less than five minutes.

Alfred was one of 1,047 prisoners who were drowned, trapped below decks. The planes then turned their attention to the rest of the convoy and sank all remaining ten ships. Some survivors were picked up by a US submarine but the remainder swam ashore only to be recaptured by the Japanese.

The official chronology of the US Navy in WW2 notes that the Hofuku Maru as being 'an army cargo ship'.

On 9 December 1946 it was gazetted that HM The King approved that Alfred be mentioned in dispatches in recognition of his 'gallant and distinguished services whilst a prisoner of war'.

Fred Cox's body was never recovered. He is remembered on the Singapore Memorial (column 47). He was 23 years old.

If you have any corrections or further information please contact me.