Name
James George Mckean Hull Harvey
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
22/01/1942
25
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
5773059
Royal Norfolk Regiment
5th Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
KRANJI WAR CEMETERY
33. D. 2-6 (Coll.)
Singapore
Headstone Inscription
TILL WE MEET AGAIN. SLEEP ON, BELOVED
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Royal British Legion Plaque, Payne's Park, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in South Shields and at the time of enlisting was resident at Bedford. He served in the 5th Battalion of the Royal Norfolks and was given Service Number 5773059. The Battalion was in the 53rd Infantry Brigade of the 18th Division and was a Territorial Army unit.
They were transported on the U.S.S. ‘Mount Vernon’ of 40,000 tons and arrived with the rest of the 53rd Brigade at Singapore on the 13th January 1942. They had been diverted from a voyage to the Middle East where it had been intended that they would take part in the North African campaign. The voyage took eleven weeks and, completely untrained for jungle warfare, they were immediately thrown into the savage jungle battles against the Japanese in Johore north of Singapore. Initially they went to Ayer Hitam under III Corps but gradually withdrew to Singapore Island where they held a section of the north coast.
He was most probably wounded in Johore and evacuated to Kranji which is across the water on Singapore Island itself. Here he died and is buried in Kranji War Cemetery, Singapore in Plot 33, Row Din Collective Grave 2-6. A private inscription on the headstone reads "Till we meet again sleep on beloved".
He was the son of William and Florence Harvey of Hitchin.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, ‘The Bitter End’ by R. Holmes & A. Kemp, ‘Battalion at War’ by M Moore
