Roll of Honour 2023

P AGE 253

W ORLD W AR II

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

Name CHARLES NEVILL SHARPLES (Civilian)

Arrive SES 1912

Roll Number 1435 Died 17:09:1945

Lef SES 1918

Set / House B

Where SINGAPORE Serving with LOCAL DEFENCE CORPS (MALAYA)

Age 45

Buried Kanji, North West, Singapore Remembered The Singapore Memorial Roll of Honour and The St. Edward’s School WW2 Memorial

Born 1900, the son of a medical doctor. Member of the School Cricket XI 1917, the 2nd Rugby Football XV 1917, a Lance Corporal in the OTC, and in the Modern Vth Form on leaving. He went out to Sumatra, then Malaya, after leaving School, where he was described as a ‘planter’. Married in 1937. With the outbreak of WW2 he joined the Observer Corps, part of the Local Defence Corps in Singapore. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese in 1942 and imprisoned in the infamous Changi Prison, Singapore and not released until 1945 by the incoming Americans, by which time he was a very sick and emaciated man. He was present, by special invitation of General MacArthur, on the “U.S.S. Missouri” in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender was signed on 15th August. Sadly he passed away a month later due to his very poor health.