2nd Lieutenant William Anthony Pennycuick SAMPSON (145341)
Royal Artillery attached to the 3rd (Light) Anti Aircraft Regiment, Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery

Date of birth: 11th September 1918
Date of death: 15th February 1942

Killed in action aged 23
Buried at Kranji War Cemetery Plot 17 Row C Grave 17
He was born at Bushey, Hertfordshire on the 11th of September 1918, the eldest son of Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Sampson of the Indian Army and Hilda Muriel (nee Pennycuick) later of "The Old Tylers", Tewin Wood, Welwyn, Hertfordshire.

He was educated at Seabrook Lodge School, Hythe, and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1932 to December 1936, where he was The Grange. He was a scholar and a monitor.

On the outbreak of war he undertook officer training and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on the 24th of August 1940. 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on the 24th of August 1940 and was attached to the 3rd (Light) Anti Aircraft Regiment, Hong Kong and Singapore Royal Artillery.

The Japanese invaded Malaya on the 8th of December 1941 and by mid February the following year they were fighting in Singapore itself. On the 15th of February 1942 William Sampson was involved in the fighting at Government House where he was killed during the afternoon. The British forces in Singapore surrendered to the Japanese at 5.15pm and hostilities ceased at 8.30pm. William Sampson was buried in the garden at Government House the following day. His body was later exhumed and moved to its present location.
The Grange

Back