Stan Sharpley, Loyal N. Lancs Regt., R.I.P.

Mr John Stanley ('Stan') Sharpley of Carlisle, Cumbria who served with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment in WW2 has passed away at the age of 96 on Thursday 3 July 2014. After the fall of Singapore in 1942 Stan Sharpley became a prisoner of war of the Japanese and held at the notorious Changi prison.

It is believed he was one of the last survivors of this prison camp. Stan was left blind in one eye after catching diphtheria at Changi camp.

Stan's funeral took place at St John the Baptist Church, Carlisle on Friday 11 July 2014. Nearly 100 people attended the funeral, with a guard of honour made up of members of the Royal British Legion and soldiers of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (a successor regiment to the Loyal N. Lancs). In the funeral eulogy, the vicar described Stan as " ... a friendly, outgoing man who would get on with anyone".

Stan was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1918. After his father was killed in WW1 Stan and his sister Dorothy were placed in a Liverpool workhouse before being fostered with a family at Shap in what was then Westmorland. Stan married his late wife Jean in 1946.

Stan is survived by two sons, Alan and John, a daughter, Margaret, seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

To read a brief obituary of Stan Sharpley in the local newspaper, click on the following link:
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/cumbrian-former-japanese-prisoner-of-war-stan-dies-at-age-96-1.1146633

John Stanley Sharpley (1918 - 2014), R.I.P.