Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 178

W ORLD W AR II

S T . E DWARD ’ S S CHOOL , O XFORD R OLL OF H ONOUR

Name HUGH STANLEY LEMON GRIFFITH (Lt)

Lef SES 1939

Roll Number 3046 Died 05:03:1943

Set / House B

Arrive SES 1935

Where BALLALE ISLAND, MALAYA Serving with HONG GONG & SINGAPORE REG

Age 19

Buried No Known Grave Remembered Roll of Honour Gunners 600 Party Roll, The Singapore Memorial and The St. Edward’s School WW2 Memorial Born 1921. He was in Form V(c) when he left. Went onto Wye College then The University of London 1931-5. Went into poultry farming. With the outbreak of war he joined the Royal Artillery as a Gunner 1940, at the same time entering their Officer Cadet Training Unit. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1941 and posted to the Far East. Promoted to Lieutenant in the Hong Kong & Singapore Regiment, part of the Royal Artillery in 1942. Reported as Missing the same year during the battle for Singapore. He had in fact been taken prisoner by the invading Japanese and died at their hands in what became known as ‘The Ballale Island Massacre’ in the Northern Solomon Islands Region. Griffith and others were shipped to this island to build an airstrip, where they were treated barbarically and many quickly perished due to disease and malnutrition. When the airstrip was complete and the Allied forces closing in, the remaining prisoners were either beheaded or bayonetted to death. After the war the whole episode was declared a War Crime and some of the perpetrators executed.