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Gotts Surname Family History

5775032 Pte Stanley Herbert 511 POW

5th Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment  Service Number 5775032

Nick Gotts confirms that Stanley is his uncle, and from Nick’s father learned that Stanley was captured by the Japanese and died, possibly because of dysentery. A record of his death has now been found which shows he died of typhus.

Stanley was born in 1921 to Matthew 489 and Elizabeth Myhill. He is recorded as a Prisoner of War in Singapore, and is buried in Kranji cemetery in the North of the island.

He was part of the 4,5,6th Territorial Battalions in the 18th Division defending Singapore against the Japanese invasion. The Japanese invaded Singapore itself from 9th Feb 1942, and the British surrendered in 15th Feb. Stanley was part of 50,000 British and Empire troops made prisoners of war.

Stanley had a very short war. He contracted typhus and died on 23rd Feb, only 8 days later. Typhus is contracted by fleas which often live on rats, which were abundant. At times rats were caught and eaten to keep men alive, but it is more likely that he was around the rats and got bitten by a flea. We only know that is how he died from a death record, which shows he was buried in the Kampong Java Christian Cemetery by 197 Field Ambulance. It was common practice to bury those with typhus outside the camp. He was later reinterred at the CWGC cemetery at Kranji.

Kranji War Cemetery

C/o CWGC

Stanley’s gravestone

C/o Vikki Luoma at Findagrave.com