Toothill,+RE

TOOTHILL, Robert Ernest Private, 3059144, 2nd Battalion The Royal Scots (Royal Regiment). Son of Richard Arthur Toothill and Mary Toothill, 37 Carlton St, Brow, Haworth. Died 21st February 1943, from the effects of Japanese brutality, starvation and disease as a Prisoner of war in a camp at Osaka Japan. (name and number of camp not known). Age 25. Enlisted in October 1939 and spent two years in Hong Kong, and was reported missing when it fell to the Japanese. HIs name appears on the Keighley Memorial, The Haworth Parish Church Memorial (Royal British Legion), the Oxenhope Parish Church Memorial (2000), and on the family headstone in Haworth Cemetery. The Family headstone in Haworth Cemetery, (Section B, No 24) reads In Loving Memory / of / Richard Arthur Toothill / died Aug 23rd 1935, aged 36 years / Pte Robert Ernest Toothill, Royal Scots / died Feb. 1942 / in a PoW camp at Osaka, Japan, aged 25 years. / also of Mary, wife of the above / died Jan 18th 1951, aged 53 years.

See :- Keighley News 7th Feb 1942 and Keighley News 25th Juiy 1942.

Yokahama War Cemetery, British Section M - C - 1.