Memorial for Bill Clements (Barton Billy)

Aim

This project is to provide a memorial for Bill Clements, known as ‘Barton Billy, a Japanese Prisoner of War who was well-known in Gloucester

About Bill Clements

“Bill Clements, known as ‘Barton Billy’, was a prisoner of war of the Japanese who on release slept rough, because his experiences in the PoW camps had left him afraid of enclosed spaces - even his own home. He was forced to do slave labour in the camps and returned a broken man, even losing the power of speech.

After the fall of Singapore, Bill was among the British soldiers who were sent to work on the infamous Burma railway, from which the majority never returned. He suffered dreadful experiences at the hands of brutal prison guards. He and his comrades were forced to lie on a runway while the Japanese threatened to drive a steamroller over them.

They were beaten with bamboo canes, split at the end to inflict appalling injuries. Starving and ravaged by dysentery, they were shipped to a notorious camp in Java.

Bill, who had joined the 3rd The King’s Own Hussars before the war, returned to Gloucester in 1945 with a head injury and as an emaciated shadow of his former self. He turned to drink and wandered the city streets by day and night. Locals remember seeing him sitting on Barton Street by the doctors’ surgery or All Saints Church or part way up Victoria Street. People would talk to him and give him food, drink, clothing and haircuts. Bill would put his hands up to protect his eyes when people spoke to him.  He was a whisky drinker, but at times he would drink tea or milk that he was given.  Many people knew the background to why he spent his time on the streets and were particularly compassionate towards him because of that, but others didn’t know his story.

Bill was very patriotic, had a peculiar sense of humour and liked a joke. In 1988, he moved from his flat to be looked after at the Bohanam House nursing home in Barnwood. His aim was always to die by the Gloucester Park Cenotaph and he never missed a Remembrance Sunday.

It was reported that when Queen Elizabeth II visited Widden Primary School in 1986 and her car passed along Barton Street, Bill got up from the pavement, where he had been sat for around four hours, and saluted Her Majesty.

He died in March 1995.   He was a gentle soul who is remembered with respect and affection by those who knew him.”

The above is a shortened edited version of an article about Bill in the ‘100 Gloucester Characters’ book written by Matt Cass and Paul James.

The Project

When we have posted about him on social media, we have been struck by the number of comments and the huge affection there is for Bill.  A number of people wanted to know his resting place so they could pay their respects.   With the help of the City Council’s crematorium team, we established that Bill was cremated and his ashes scattered on his family’s grave in the Old Cemetery at Tredworth.

With the help of the crematorium team, we located the grave, but there is nothing to mark where it is.   We would like to put this right.

We are looking to raise just under £1000 for a granite ‘book wedge’ to be put in place at the grave, to be made by Gloucester company F J Cambridge & Co Ltd, monumental masons, located on Stroud Road.  The wording has been checked with Bill’s regiment and COFEPOW, a registered charity dedicated to perpetuating the memory of the Far East Prisoners of War.   

Once we have reached the amount needed, the memorial will take a couple of months to make and install and we will hold an event to mark its installation, all being well in the spring of 2026.

01.01.2026

We are very grateful for everyone’s donations and support for this project.  Your stories and memories of Bill have been so touching.  We have now reached our fundraising target and will place the order for the memorial as soon as the supplier (F J Cambridge & Co) returns to work, which will be in the next few days.  We have actually very slightly exceeded the target, so any surplus funds will be donated to the Alabare charity, which provides homes for veterans and has one of their homes in Longlevens.  More details can be found here: https://alabare.co.uk/our-impact/

We anticipate the memorial will take a couple of months to make and we will organise an appropriate unveiling ceremony in the Spring.  We will keep you all updated.  Many thanks again for your support.

This project successfully funded on 3rd February 2026