Edward Baldwyn Pugh

A Sergeant with 251 Field Park Company, Edward died on 10th of December 1942 aged 34. 

Edward was born at Ilford, Essex, on 4 December 1908, a son of The Reverend Baldwyn de Fonmartin and Emily Marion Pugh. He was baptised at Saint John the Baptist Church, Buckhurst Hill, on 17 January 1909 and his family lived at 5 Stamforth Road, Newbury Park, Ilford. In 1921 his family lived at Kings Cottage, Monnington on Wye, Brobury, Herefordshire. By 1934 Cuthbert’s father had become the Rector of Gisleham and his family lived at Gisleham Rectory. 

Edward enlisted in the Royal Engineers, at Norwich, on 15 February 1939. On 13 October 1941 Edward was admitted to Wordsley Hospital, Stourbridge, with a lacerated thumb. He returned to duty on 20 October. 

By late 1941 he was serving with 251 Field Park Company in the 18th Division. Edward’s unit embarked in October 1941 bound for Egypt, but, en route, their destination was changed to India and from there they were sent to Singapore, with various elements arriving in late January and early February 1942. Edward was captured at the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. He would, like most of the men of his company, have been held at Changi and sources show that he in one of the groups of prisoners that were taken overland, on 30 October 1942, to work on the Burma Railway. 

Edward was held at Tonchan Central camp. He had dysentery and seemed to be recovering and was discharged from hospital but died suddenly during the night from cardiac beri-beri and gastritis. He was buried at Tonchan Main Cemetery and re-buried at Kanchanaburi Military Cemetery in 1946.  

Edward’s brother Cuthbert served with the Royal Norfolk Regiment and was also captured at Singapore and died on the Burma Railway. Edward, and his brother Cuthbert, are commemorated on a special memorial at Gisleham Church.