Kranji is one of many War Cemeteries which are under the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in countries around the world. It is situated on a hill in the North of Singapore Island, not far from the Causeway Connecting Singapore to Johor Bahru (Malaysia). Pre-war, Kranji was a British military camp, where a large ammunition dump was situated before the war with Japan. Close by is the mouth of the Kranji River where the Japanese Imperial Guards Division landed on 9th February 1942, the day after the landings at Sarimbun. Following the Japanese occupation of Singapore, Kranji became a POW camp, with a POW hospital close by at Woodlands. A cemetery for prisoners was started at Kranji, and after the war, in 1946, it was decided to move war graves from Changi, Buona Vista and other cemeteries to Kranji which would be designated as Singapore's War Cemetery. Graves were also moved to Kranji from as far afield as Saigon where they could not be maintained.
Date(s): May 30, 2004. Album by ccplim. Photos by ccplim. 1 - 30 of 66 Total. 526 Visits.
1 The road leading to the main enterance of the memorial.
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4 A signboard at the car park near to the enterance to serve as a reminder of some rules to take note while in the memorial.
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7 The view from the steps leading into the cemetery from the car park.
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9 The words, "Their Name Liveth Forevermore" on the memorial stone designed by Lutyens, familiar in British war cemeteries around the world, were chosen from the Book of Ecclesiastius in the bible by Rudyard Kipling.
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12 The repository for the cemetery register in the left hand gatehouse.
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14 THE GREAT 'WINGED' MEMORIAL
At the top of Kranji Hill is the Great Winged Memorial. Projecting through the roof of it is the Singapore Memorial. This reaches to a height of 80 feet and is surmounted by a star.
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23 There are many graves without identification in Kranji. Here shown a grave containing an unknown soldier.
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25 The Cross of Sacrifice. The design is identical to the crosses in British War Cemeteries world-wide.
26 THE MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING
1939 - 1945 On the walls of this memorial are recorded the names of twenty four thousand soldiers and airmen of many races united in service to the British crown who gave their lives in Malaya and neighbouring lands and seas and in the air over southern and eastern asia and the pacific but to whom the fortune of war denied the customary rites accorded to their comrades in death
THEY DIED FOR ALL FREE MEN
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28 THE MEMORIAL WALLS
Inscribed on the memorial walls are the names of over 24,000 men and women who have no known grave. These names include that of a man who has been named as a traitor, and who spied for the Japanese.
The casualties commemorated here died during the battle for Malaya and Singapore and Indonesia, or who died during captivity. Many of them during the building of the Death Railway. Others died at sea while being transported elsewhere to work as slave labour for the Japanese. Airmen who died in the Far East war zone are also commemorated here.
