WW2 PoW's dog tags returned to Norfolk family after 77 years

Peter Ramm's dog tags have now been returned to his nephew, Robin Green

A World War Two soldier's dog tags have been returned to his family, 77 years after his death in a Japanese prisoner of war (PoW) camp.

After Peter Ramm died in 1943, aged 23, his friend Eric Adie retrieved his tags.

Last month, after Mr Adie's own death at the age of 96, his son Robert Adie tracked down Lt Ramm's family.

Lt Ramm's nephew Robin Green, of Norwich, said he "couldn't believe" the family had been traced.

Lt Ramm, from Attleborough, Norfolk, and Mr Adie were serving with the Royal Norfolk Regiment in Singapore when the Japanese invaded in 1942 and both were taken prisoner.

Robert Adie said the two were sent from camp to camp, eventually working on the Burma Railway, built by Japan to help supply its troops.

Tens of thousands of prisoners died building the railway.

"My father didn't really talk much about his wartime service, and especially not his experience as a prisoner of war," said Mr Adie.

"However, he had mentioned his friend Peter, who had sadly died out in one of the camps.

"For some reason my father never got around to returning Peter's tags, and so for 77 years they have been amongst his possessions until I began to sort through and realised these didn't belong to our family.

"So I set out to find Peter's family."

Eric Adie (above) was sent with Peter Ramm to work on the Burma Railway; about 100,000 PoWs died building it and they are commemorated at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire (pictured right)

Mr Green knew of his uncle's service in the Far East and his death in a PoW camp in Burma, and had two of his diaries.

But he was shocked to receive a phone call about the dog tags.

"I just couldn't believe that Robert had tracked me down after all this time and that I was speaking to someone who had a connection to my uncle," he said.

"I realised that I even had a photo of the 5th Battalion taken at Marbury Hall while they were receiving training before going abroad, which shows Peter and Eric next to each other.

"It has been amazing to finally hear about a side of my uncle's service I never knew about and it has made me revisit his old diaries he kept in the camp.

"I have no idea how he kept them hidden or how they survived being passed back to my grandparents."

Eric Adie and Peter Ramm (second row from back, seventh and eighth from left) were part of the 5th Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment

Lt Peter Ramm had a PoW index card produced by the Japanese army

The story is one of many revealed by the Royal British Legion for Saturday's 75th anniversary of VJ Day, the day WW2 ended with Japan's surrender.

Lt Ramm is also remembered on the Roll of Honour website.