Source: Leicestershire War Memorials Project.
Harold Handley died in the Singapore Conflict during WW2 and is buried in a military cemetery in Malaysia. He is related to Herbert and Sydney Handley, who were both casualties of WW1.
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Harold was born in Melton Mowbray and was the eighth son of Annie and John Henry Handley of 1, Queen Street, Melton Mowbray. He had 9 brothers and three sisters.
His father John Henry Handley, was a sergeant in the Leicestershire Regiment and served from 1914 - 1916, when he was medically discharged due to the effects of being gassed during WWI conflicts.
One of his older brothers, Herbert, was a corporal in the Coldstream Guards who served during WW1 and was killed by shellfire in the trenches at Ayette, France in 1917, aged 22.

Harold was married to Margaret on 26/12/1931 and together they lived at 15 Belvoir Street, Melton. Before enlisting on 13/11/1940 he had worked as a timber yard labourer. He was killed at the age of 35 on 02/01/1942, during the Battle of Kampar, Perak, Malaya.
Harold is buried in Taiping War Cemetery, Perak, Malaysia.

Kampar, Perak, is a site of historical significance where members of the British Battalion, made up of the remnants of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, The East Surrey Regiment, and the Indian Army, brought a superior Japanese Army division to a standstill.
The Japanese intended to capture Kampar as a New Year’s gift to Emperor Hirohito and on 30 December 1941 the they began surrounding the British and Indian positions. The following day fighting commenced. The Allied forces were able to hold on for four days before withdrawing on 2 January 1942, having achieved their objective of slowing the Japanese advance.
The Kampar position was the strongest of any occupied in Malaya. The Japanese Commander Lt Gen Takuro Matsui was forced to admit defeat and General Yamashita ordered further amphibious landings to be made to the rear of the British lines. Japanese newspapers at the time claimed 500 Japanese casualties against an Allied loss of over 150. It was the first serious defeat the Japanese had experienced in the Malayan campaign.
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Researched and submitted by family member, J. Palmer, 2018

History of the Battle of Kampar and map taken from The Queens Royal Surrey Regiment Association website in 2019:
http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/ww2/malaya/010.shtml