Forename: Edward
Surname: Johnson
Rank: Private
Regiment: Cambridgeshire Regiment
Institution: St Paul’s Practising School
Edward Johnson was born on 19 May 1920. He was the son of Richard and Jane Johnson and lived at 23 Lower Park Street, Cheltenham. He was educated at Devonshire Street School and St Pauls Practising School, later taking up employment at the Home and Colonial Stores and Messrs R R Townsend, Provision Merchants & Cooked Meats at 331 High Street Cheltenham. He was conscripted into the army in 1940 and posted to the 2nd Battalion Cambridgeshire Regiment, where he was sent to Malaya.
Private Johnson and the rest of his unit were captured and transferred to a Thai POW camp in Sector IV and used as slave labourers on the Burma-Siam railway, Edward fell ill on the 16 March 1943 and succumbed to Beriberi (a disease caused by dietary deficiencies) on the 23 April 1943 aged 22. After the war his remains were traced near Wanyai village and interred at Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. The headstone reads ‘”Not gone from memory, not gone from love, but gone to his Father’s home above”.