Lance Corporal - Royal Air Ordinance Corps - Service No. 7648416
Harold James Cedric Page was born on 15th June 1914 in Gravesend, Kent. His father was John Cedric Page, a Paper Mill Worker, and his mother was Selina Jane (née Willett). His father was in the Middlesex Regiment in World War One, and was killed in Belgium in August 1917. Harold first attended Wrotham Road School in Gravesend.
In 1926 Harold Page joined The County School for Boys – now known as Gravesend Grammar School. The Head Master at that time was the Reverend Samuel Lister. The County School for Boys was located in Darnley Road, Gravesend close to the Railway Station (now the Victoria Centre for Education). In 1938 the School moved to brand new premises in Church Walk, Milton, Gravesend opposite to Milton Church.
The School’s Admission Register lists Harold’s address as 10 Park Place, Gravesend.
In 1930 Harold left the School and started work as a Clerk at the Empire Paper Mills. In World War Two he enlisted in the Royal Air Ordinance Corps, becoming a Lance Corporal, Service No. 7648416.
Harold was sent with his unit to the far east, but with the fall of Singapore in 1942, he became a Japanese Prisoner of War. He was forced to work on the Burma Railway for up to 16 hours a day under atrocious conditions. On the 28th July 1943, Harold Page died in Thailand, he was 29 years old. He is buried at Kanchanaburi cemetery near the Bridge at the River Kwai.
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There are links below to Newspaper Clippings and Photographs from the Gravesend Grammar School Archives.
Below are links to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website and a few other websites that might be of interest:
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2233532/page,-harold-james-cedric/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/prisoners-of-war-of-the-japanese-1939-1945
https://thediplomat.com/2014/02/the-fall-of-singapore-and-railway-of-death/