Ahead of the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday 15 August, Kenilworth Nub News is sharing a short series on the town's connections to the Second World War and the war in the Pacific. The town will mark VJ Day with a short service at the Abbey Fields war memorial at 11am on Friday.

Today's feature is written by Kenilworth local Diane Shores about her uncle - Walter Lewis Galley.

I never had the chance to meet my uncle (my mum's brother), but I feel through conversations with my mum over the years until she passed away five years ago that I did know him.

My mum was so proud of the brother that she lost - cause of death registered as 'Avitaminosis'.

Through brutal slavery, starvation and poor diet, he died at Pakan Baroe camp on 2 September 1945, the very day Japan formally surrendered.

He served as a Gunner in the Royal Artillery and was moved with his comrades from camp to camp in terrain so unfamiliar to home, to build the notorious Burma Railway.

I am the family custodian of Uncle Lewis's telegram sent home to my Grandmother and the letter from the War Office confirming that he wasn't coming home to his mother and five siblings.

Following his father's untimely death, having been tragically killed some five years previously, the family home consisted of two railway carriages in the middle of the Norfolk fens.

Before he went off to fight for his country, Uncle Lewis used to tend the crops on their smallholding, taking their two shire horses out to plough the fields every day to provide food for the family.

He was sorely missed.

I understand from my family that he was a very talented artist and I often wonder if he was able to make any sketches of his life in the camps.

My grandmother never ever recovered from the tragic news of his death and suffering ill health for the rest of her life, she passed away within a few years of his death.

I have recently made an application for my uncle's medals and made a promise to my mum that I would never let Uncle Lewis' name be forgotten.