No.1735753, Gunner, George David POOLEY
Aged 26
|
George Pooley was born on 16th May 1915. His mother was Anna POOLEY, and his sister lived at Holywell Road (perhaps meant to be Holywell Row), Bury St.Edmunds according to
his Japanese PoW card. He was a motor engineer by trade. There is insufficient detail from the inscription on the memorial to identify him further.
Royal Artillery records have him born and resident in Bury St Edmunds. In the 1939 register he was a motor mechanic, single, living at Pine Bungalow, Holywell Row with his father George [10-1-1876] widower, retired woodseller; brothers Archie [14-2-1905] forestry worker and John [18-1-1909] woodseller; sister Betsy [10-3-1911]. There are no closed records. Parents and brothers not identified in the 1911 census and birth registrations also not found. There was a possibility that his father used the surname BRINKLEY but using this was also unsuccessful.It certainly appears that in earlier records the surname used was not POOLEY. There is in the 1911 census a family group that matches well, using the surname of BRINKLEY and living in Gypsy Caravan, Elsing, East Dereham. No two children are born in the same place. Four of the "Brinkley" children started school at Pot Row School, Grimston on 6th March 1912, as POOLEY. In collaboration with David Brinkley (no relative), a member of the Romany and Travellers Family History Society:- I have found that in 1881 father George Pooley was living in a caravan at the Rose and Crown Yard, Holmsey Green, Mildenhall with his father George Pooley, his mother Elizabeth Pooley and his brothers John and Isaiah Pooley. The Brinkley connection is because Elizabeth Pooley was baptised as Betsey Brinkley 13th May 1838 in Soham, Cambridgeshire to Sydney and Maria Brinkley. George and Elizabeth Pooley were not, as many of the Travellers, officially married. That is why the children took the mother's maiden name. Isaiah Pooley went as Isaiah Brinkley and lived in Mildenhall. Many of the travellers were not officially registered. You have found that in 1911 George David Pooley's father George and his mother Anna were living in East Dereham, Norfolk. They were living as Brinkleys. I have found no official registration of the births of George David and his brothers. Neither have I found any baptisms. As I said, this is often the case with the travellers. As can be seen here, it is difficult to pin down details of the families of the Romanies and Travellers. It may well be that some of the un-identified casualties on this website also came from Traveller or Romany families. Maybe in the fullness of time we can find them, they must be remembered just as much as the others who gave their lives serving their country. |
|
He attested for the Royal Artillery in 1940. Captured on 20th March 1942, he died at Hakodate Camp from Acute Colitis which seems to have been contracted initially in the Netherlands East Indies.
95 Battery,48th Lt A-A Regiment, Royal Artillery arrived at Batavia on board the Empress of Australia on 4th February 1942. 48 LAA Regiment RA, on arrival in Batavia, sent 95 Battery to Oosthaven in Sumatra en route for the airfield around Palembang (P1 and P2) to reinforce the air defence already there. When they arrived in Palembang they found that the evacuation was beginning and they had time only to turn round, retire to Oosthaven and return to Java. 95 Battery, on its return, was deployed around Andir airfield near Bandoeng (now Bandung). When the Dutch surrendered Java it was useless for the British to continue and on 9th March 1942 they surrendered to the Japanese. In fact the Far East Prisoners of War database shows his capture as 20th March 1942. As well as sending many men to work on the infamous Burma Railway, regular drafts of "slave labour" were sent to mainland Japan. Originally in the Yokohama Mausoleum his urn was moved to Yokohama War Cemetery in 1946.
photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details |
