Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Six: Private J. T. Fluck, Manchester Regiment, who after being captured with his battalion at the fall of Singapore, 15 February 1942, died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp on the Thai-Burma Railway on 20 June 1943
General Service Medal 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine (3526649 Pte. J. T. Fluck. Manch. R); 1939-45 Star; Burma Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45, in named card box of issue addressed to ‘Mrs S. Fluck, Pear Tree Cottage, Llanarth, Raglan, Mon.’, very fine and better

British War Medal 1914-20 (64970 Pte. J. H. Fluck. M.G.C.) nearly very fine (6) £140-£180

John Thomas Fluck, a resident of Llanarth, Monmouthshire, attested for the Manchester Regiment, initially serving with the 1st Battalion in Palestine during the Arab Revolt from 1937-38. Remaining with the battalion into the Second World War, Fluck was with his unit in Malaya and Singapore, when along with the rest of the garrison, they were taken Prisoner of War following the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Fluck was held at prisoner of war camps in Malaya before being moved to Thailand and forced to participate in the building the notorious Thai-Burma Railway. As with many other members of his battalion, it is believed that he was first held at Chungkai Camp with No. 2 P.O.W. Group, then gradually moving up the track as the railway work progressed. He died of acute enteritis on the 20 June 1943 and was initially buried in Nanchon Yai before being re-interred to Kanchanaburi War Cemetery, Thailand, in 1946.

Note: For the recipient’s service with the 1st Battalion in Singapore, his correct medal entitlement is the Pacific Star, not the Burma Star.

Joseph Henry Fluck lived in Ross, Herefordshire and was the father of John Thomas Fluck. He attested for the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry in July 1916, before transferring to the Machine Gun Corps the following October, and served with 218th Company, Machine Gun Corps, 8th Division on the Western Front. Following the cessation of hostilities he served in Egypt with the 33rd Battalion, before returning to the U.K. for discharge in March 1920.