Mr Frederick John Buckland MAGGS
Civilian

Date of birth: 21st July 1895
Date of death: 5th March 1942

Died aged 46
Commemorated on the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour at St George’s Chapel, Westminster Abbey
He was born at Maidstone, Kent on the 21st of July 1895 the son of Frederick Maggs, school inspector for the Board of Education, and Martha of “Lansdown”, 11 Buckland Hill, Maidstone.

He was educated at the King’s School Canterbury from September 1909 to July 1912.

He emigrated to Malaya where he worked for J. Russell & Company. He was married to Kim Lan Maggs and they lived at “Greenways", Setapak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya; they had a son, Frederick Leonard Buckland, born in 1941.

On the 8th of December 1941 Japanese troops began landing on the Malaysian peninsular and on the 29th of December Japanese aircraft began bombing Singapore.

By late January 1942 Japanese land forces were closing in on the city and on the 28th of January the troopship SS “Duchess of Bedford” docked at Singapore to evacuate civilians from Singapore. On the 30th she was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sustained some damage. On the 31st of January 1942 Kim Lan Maggs and her son, along with around 1,000 other women and children, set sail on her as part of the wider evacuation of the colony. The ship made a stop at Batavia to undertake repairs caused by the bomb damage before setting sail once more on the 5th of February. They then sailed to Durban and Cape Town before landing at Liverpool on the 4th of April 1942 when Kim Lan then travelled to Maidstone to stay with her parents-in-law.

When Singapore surrendered on the 15th of February 1942 the Japanese issued orders the next day for all civilians of European descent to report to the Pandang on the 17th of February. They were to bring enough clothing with them for ten days. In response to this order, 1,197 men, 145 women and 37 children, including Frederick Maggs, reported and at 2pm they were marched five miles where the men were interned in temporary accommodation at Joo Chiat Police Station and at Karikal Flats. When they arrived there was no furniture, bedding, food or latrine facilities and the prisoners slept on the bare concrete floors. It was the 26th of February before the Japanese provided a small amount of rice until which time the inmates lived on tinned food provided by the Capitulation Committee. Frederick Maggs died of aplastic anaemia three weeks after his arrival. The day after he died the rest of his fellow inmates were marched the seven miles to Changi jail where they spent the next two years.

After the war his wife returned to Singapore from Liverpool on board the SS Mauretania on the 25th of June 1946.

He is not currently commemorated on the war memorial at the King’s School Canterbury.
 

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