This is from the tree owner:
"Arthur William Anderson was my uncle (my mother's brother). His death in 1942 won't be recognized by the CWGC - I believe - because he was a civilian working in Borneo when the Japanese invaded, and was not associated with the military. He was a civilian electrical engineer, setting up and commissioning power stations for the United Engineers Ltd., and Sarawak Electricity Supply Co.
His last letter home to his mother dated 23 November 1941 stated that he was in Sibu, Sarawak (Malaysia) and was intending to travel to "safety" in Australia, with an estimated arrival date of February 1942. He never made it that far.
On 20 Aug 1942, Japanese marines arrived at Long Nawang, Indonesia (which is as far as the British civilians had managed to go), and within 6 days all the European men had been executed. The women and children were executed a month later on 23 September 1942. This became known as the "Massacre at Long Nawang".
There is a memorial plaque installed on his parents' grave in Holy Cross Cemetery, Wallsend, Northumberland, England which was installed by Arthur's nephew in 2006.
The actual circumstances of Arthur's death were unknown to the Anderson family until 2006, when my husband (who is from The Netherlands) contacted the Dutch War Ministry who held records regarding the activities and events that took place in Borneo/Sarawak during World War II. Until we learned what had truly happened to Arthur, the family had believed that he'd died in a ship bound for India. On the 1st of February 1947, The Undersecretary of State for the Colonial Office had written to my grandmother with this conjecture which - of course - turned out to be untrue. I have a copy of that letter.
I tried to log into Rootschat to provide this information, however, despite registering, I was unable to reply to the thread. Perhaps you would be so kind as to pass on this information.
The researcher can also contact me directly by email.
I have photographs of Arthur William Anderson, copies of his letter, and so forth.
p.s. One of the posts on the Rootschat thread talks about a family of Andersons on Bede Crescent who were killed when a bomb struck their house. My mother's family were the OTHER Andersons living on Bede Crescent and not related - as far as we know - to the unfortunate family who was killed."
I'll send the email address by PM.
