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Re: Final Insult to Hero Who Beat War Torturers

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: January 07, 2003

"Final insult to hero who beat war torturers

A WAR hero’s home in Northampton has been ransacked by thieves only days after his death.
Second World War veteran Charlie Izzard, 82, died in his Spring Boroughs council flat 60 years after he was captured by Japanese forces.

And days after his death, his younger brother Gerald Sherlock, 70, arrived at the Beaumont Court tower block to discover it had been turned upside down by raiders.

Mr Sherlock, from Rectory Farm, said: “It is terrible. We couldn’t believe it. Nothing was taken but then Charlie didn’t have much. The whole place was wrecked, they were obviously looking for money.”

Mr Izzard grew up in Spring Boroughs in Northampton and returned to the area after the war. He liked the area so much he pledged to fight to stay if council plans to tear the block down were approve
d.A council spokeswoman said: “This is absolutely awful, especially so soon after the gentleman’s death.”

Mr Izzard was one of the first group of British soldiers to be freed from Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in South-East Asia.

After three years of back-breaking labour helping to build the infamous Burma railway and toiling in silver mines, he returned to Northampton weighing little more than five stone.

His body bore numerous scars as permanent reminders of the gruelling Japanese torture methods he had endured.

Mr Sherlock said: “The Japanese couldn’t kill him all those years ago in those awful conditions and that says a lot about Charlie.

“We all know he went through horrific things but he was very quiet and didn’t speak much about his experiences until the end of his life.

“He was captured in Singapore and was marched all the way through Burma, where they were forced to build the railway.

“After three-and-a-half years he ended up in Thailand working in silver mines.”

Their younger brother Tommy also served in the Second World War and was wounded in France.

Mr Sherlock and his wife Beryl visited Singapore and signed Mr Izzard’s name in a book of condolences at the site of the mass graveyard where hundreds of thousands of his Allied colleagues perished.

He said: “You cannot imagine anything on that scale now. It’s a terrible place and we were very happy when Charlie came home. It was totally unexpected.”

In 1944, a Chronicle & Echo article quoted a postcard Mr Izzard had sent his mother while being held prisoner.
He wrote: “My health is excellent. I am working for pay. Please see that yourself and Jerry [Gerald] are taken care of.”
It was the only contact the family had from him during his imprisonment.

After his discharge Mr Izzard, a former Military Road School pupil, worked in the boot and shoe trade in factories in Northampton. He was a prize-winning cribbage player and picked up nine trophies playing with the 20th Century Club.

The funeral of Mr Izzard, who died on December 27, takes place at Milton Malsor Crematorium at 11am tomorrow.

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