Taiping War Cemetery

The Taiping War Cemetery, also known as the Commonwealth War Cemetery, is a memorial and the final resting place for fallen Allied soldiers who fought and gave their lives defending the people of Malaya from the encroaching Japanese army during World War II.  The memorial was built in 1947, established by Major J.H. Ingram, who led a team of 30 people (the No. 46 War Graves Registration Unit) in recovering bodies of the fallen from all parts of Malaya.  In some cases, Sakai (Orang Asli) guides were used to locate war graves that were deep in the jungle. Bodies of the fallen were exhumed and reinterred here at the Taiping War Cemetery.  Five men from Taiping are buried here:

• Captain Ong Kim Sai,
• Lieutenant Sergeant Khoo Heng Peng,
• Corporal Chan Kam Weng,
• Private Tang Bee Choon and
• Private Lim Poh Aun.

Other personnel buried here originate from the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and India.

The cemetery has 866 tombstones, of which only 331 bear names. The remaining 533 graves belong to soldiers whose remains could not be identified. Major Ingram attributed the failure to identify so many to the “worthless identification discs” issued by the British military.

The cemetery is divided into two sections, where the graves of Christian soldiers are on one side of the memorial where the Cross of Sacrifice is located, and the Muslim and Gurkha graves on the other side of the memorial, where the Stone of Remembrance is located. Muslim graves are oriented in the direction of Mecca, as is required by Islamic jurisprudence.

Taiping War Cemetery Plan

The Cemetery is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

The Cemetery is open from 08:00 to 17:00 Monday to Friday. The Taiping War Cemetery is stop number 39 on the Taiping Heritage Trail.

In 2017, HRH Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales visited the Taiping War Cemetery.

Military Units with Personnel Interned at Taiping War Cemetery:

Lest We Forget.