Jefferey Palfrey
Soldier who won an MC for his part in the Burma Campaign
JEFFEREY PALFREY, who has died aged 97, won an MC in 1944 in the Burma Campaign and subsequently had a successful career in industry.
In November 1944, Palfrey was serving in Burma with 361 Field Company Royal Engineers (361 FCRE). British forces advancing through the jungle could not take wheeled vehicles and he was given the task of getting to the Chindwin River, loading the jeeps on to improvised rafts made from tarpaulins and floating them a distance of 60 miles from Sittaung to Mawlaik despite the presence of Japanese troops on the banks.
Five jeeps were lost while getting them on to the rafts but all went well with the others until they got close to the town of Kalewa. There, the river narrowed as it passed through a gorge. The enemy had machine-gun posts on both sides and Palfrey was not able to get through.
After three weeks, however, early in the day, the river was shrouded by mist and he made a dash for it and slipped through. His small force was the first to link up with the main advance and his courage and initiative were recognised by the award of an immediate MC.
Jefferey Albert Palfrey was born at Staplegrove, near Taunton, on May 23 1921. He was educated at Huish’s Grammar School, Taunton, before starting his training as an articled civil engineer. His office was close to the county cricket ground and the clerks used to remove some of the roof tiles, shin up a ladder and watch the play.
He was 18 at the outbreak of war, and his interest in amateur radio led to him volunteering for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, but he transferred to the Royal Corps of Engineers and was commissioned in 1941.
The following year, he was posted to India and became part of the Indian Army. He had to learn Urdu and one of his tasks was to teach the new recruits how to drive. The young men found it difficult to understand the concept of reducing speed when approaching a corner and regularly overturned their lorries.
In April 1944 an ammunition ship blew up in the docks at Bombay. Seventeen ships were holed and sunk and the force of the explosion lifted one vessel out of the water on to the wharf. Burning bales of cotton were hurled into the air and started fires when they came down in the city. Several hundred people were killed. Palfrey and his sappers demolished buildings to make a fire break and, having closed off the dock, pumped all the water out so that repair work on the sunken ships could begin.
After accompanying 361 FCRE to Burma, he took part in fierce fighting at Imphal, where the Japanese suffered heavy losses and a crucial reverse in their thrust into India. He served in Burma for the rest of the campaign and had been promoted to acting major when he returned to England in 1945.
After a spell in Vienna, he was demobilised and became the chief civil engineer at the nearby RAF base. In 1948 he returned to England and, having qualified as a civil engineer, his professional life was spent working for county road departments.
He was a divisional highways engineer in Lincolnshire and Wiltshire. His last project before he retired was the construction of the by-pass at Alderbury, near Salisbury.
He and his wife enjoyed caravanning holidays. He got great pleasure from music and was a fan of Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra. For many years, he was a church warden at St Andrews Church, Laverstock, near Salisbury.
In 1946 Jefferey Palfrey married Molly Wills, whom he met in Vienna. She predeceased him and he is survived by their daughter.