Published: Saturday, 2nd March, 2002 00:00
David
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THE War Graves Commission is looking for help in tracing the family of a 70-year old seaman who died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1943.
The Commission recently discovered the grave of Gourock-born Chief Engineer Officer David Tweedle Baldwin of the Merchant Navy in Indonesia and would like to inform surviving family members.
CEO Baldwin sailed on the SS Baynain and is believed to have been taken prisoner in the Far East in 1942.
He died of sickness at the PoW camp at Tarakan, East Borneo, on 23 July the following year.
After the war, his grave could not be found and arrangements were made for his commemoration on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.
But last year his grave was discovered in the Kembang Kuning Netherlands Field of Honour at Surabaya in Indonesia. It had been moved from the cemetery at Tarakan in 1967.
The Commission believes CEO Baldwin's wife Mary may have predeceased him and the last contact they had was with his daughter Janet Moffat in 1955 who was then living in Innellan, Argyll.
Judith Donald, from the Commission said: "When a grave is discovered for a war casualty who previously had none, the Commission makes every effort to pass on this information to the next of kin but, in this case, we have had no success in tracing family members.
"It may that no members of CEO Baldwin's family remain in the area, but if anybody can help with contacts we would be most grateful."
She added that it was that was not unusual for someone of 70 to be serving in the Merchant Navy during the war.
Judith can be contacted at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on 01628 507109.
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