Date of birth:

October 27th, 1918 (Leicester/East Midlands, England)

Date of death:

February 7th, 2008

Nationality:

British

At the end of 1939 Harry & his 6th Royal Norfolk pals were billeted in the town of Sheringham where he stayed with a Mrs Smith. He manned a Bren Gun on the clifftop at East Runton early in 1940. In January 1941, he was moved to Dumfries for hill training. In mid 1941 he was moved to Northwich Cheshire for firewatch duties before going back up to Scotland where he embarked in October from Gourock to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the Duchess of Atholl.
He then was transferred to the Mount Vernon. He there transferred to the Mount Vernon. Cape Town was reached on December 14th 1941 before finally getting to Singapore Harbour on Jan 14th. Harry was almost immediately involved in the battle for Malaya after receiving no jungle training and was captured by the Japanese quickly becoming a POW and working on the Burma railroad for the remainder of the war.

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• - Craig Burbidge (nephew)