Mexborough & Swinton Times – Saturday 21 November 1942
Veteran Of Spanish Civil War.
Gnr. H. E. Girling (26), only son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Girling, of 96, Loversall Street, Denaby Main, officially reported missing since the fall of Singapore, is a prisoner of war in the hands of the Japanese.
Gunner Girling Joined up in Feb. 1932, and had seen service in Egypt and Malaya. He was dispatched with his comrades to Singapore at the outbreak of war, and it is now nearly four years since he saw his parents.
He was reported missing in August but the official intimation that he is a prisoner has now been received.
Gnr. Girling has had rather an adventurous career. He saw service in the civil war in Spain and then assisted in quelling the disturbances in Palestine, later arriving at Singapore. He is following in his father’s footsteps, for he, too, was a soldier in his country’s cause, joining the colours in 1896, and served in India, in the South African War (where he was wounded), in China and Malaya and then four years in the Great War.