The only child of James Albert and Esther Roscow, of Little Lever, Lancashire.

By the time Alan was 10 the family had moved to Blackpool and were taking in lodgers, including my Grandma and her slightly younger daughter (my Mum).

After joining up with his school friend Bernard Playforth he served in Britain before his 137th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery was sent to the Far East as part of the 11th Indian division, arriving in Singapore on the 28th November1941.

He was first based in Kajang, near Kuala Lumpor and fought in the defense of the Malay peninsula before being taken prisoner at the fall of Singapore on 15th February 1942.

He was sent to Changi prison camp where he died 5th May 1944, aged 24 years. 

He is buried at Kranji War Cemetery which I visited in 2006 finally leaving for him a message from Mum.

The photo of Alan and Bernard was taken on their last leave home before they were captured. At the end of the war his mother met the train bringing ex PoWs back to Blackpool only to be told by another prisoner that he had died.