EDGELEY, John Harry


No. 5834603, Private, John Harry EDGELEY
Aged 35


5th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment.
Killed in Action on Sunday 15th February 1942

He is not named on the Newmarket War Memorial

Born in Newmarket [Newmarket Q2-1910 3b:466], John Harry was the youngest son of Harry John and Harriet Louisa EDGELEY (née PEACOCK) of The Duddery, Newmarket, later of 52 Endsleigh Terrace, Exning Road, Newmarket. The Duddery was another name for the Rookery area, which included Albion Street. In a report in the Newmarket Journal his age is given as 35, but the CWGC have him as 31. There is confusion as one son was Harry John and one was John Harry. Unless and until a relative clarifies the situation, I trust we have all about the one man here. The elder, Harry John survived the war. So the CWGC seem to have the forenames reversed. John Harry worked for Cartwright Brothers before joining the Army.

1911 census...Aged 1, John Harry was at The Duddery, Newmarket with his father Harry John EDGELEY [39] coal merchant/carter born Wickhambrook; mother Louisa [40] born Lidgate; sisters Agnes [9] and Nellie May [4]; brother Harry J [6]. The children all born in Newmarket.

In the 1939 register he was a general labourer at Albion Street with his widowed mother Harriett L [23-7-1871] and brother Bernard F [23-5-1922] a news vendor.
The above is taking the ages quoted as the identification. His father died in 1923 (registered as John Harry)

Of all of the men in this section, Harry's exclusion from the memorial is the most inexplicable.



From http://www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/armedforces_5thSuffolks.htm we have the following: " The 5th Suffolks, still in their position at Bukit Timah Road, were amongst trees and mangrove shrubs just a short distance in front of Raffles' College, which was the Battalion Headquarters. Now they were subjected to attack by machine gun and rifle fire, and also by mortar bombs. Resulting from this ensuing onslaught, two 'Suffolk' stretcher-bearers lost their lives in going to the aid of men who had been injured in the attack. Those remaining could do nothing but just wait there with no chance of moving for fear of becoming easy, open targets.
After a night of almost continual attack by Japanese fire, accompanied by screams of the injured and dying, the morning of Sunday 15th February 1942 dawned with no indication that the situation might improve. News came that the water supply on the Island had been severed and also that the civilian population and the City were being heavily bombed.
During that late afternoon from their position at Bukit Timah Road they saw, some few hundred yards in front of them, a small convoy of open military vehicles moving away to their left. It was very plain that in one of these vehicles a Union Jack was being held aloft by someone, and in another a large white flag was displayed. Later that day the order was given to lay down their arms as Singapore had surrendered."

The Suffolks had 51 killed on the 14th and 50 on the 15th and were still prepared to fight on




Commonwealth War Graves Commission photo



photo from asiawargraves.com

No Known Grave - Harry is commemorated on the Singapore Memorial column 55

click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details

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