Maj Harry E Schulman MBE TD died peacefully at home in South Creake on 17 November 2010, a fortnight after his 100th birthday. He served with the 5th Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment and was a FEPOW. He had been a soldier, churchwarden and pioneering farmer. A special peal of 5040 changes was rung on 3 November at St Mary’s Church, North Creake.

Mr Schulman was a leading member of Norfolk County Council for more than 20 years. On retirement from public service, he had been made an MBE, as had his late wife, Peggy.

He had always wanted to farm since the age of 5 and, despite initial opposition from his father, he read agriculture at Cambridge. In 1933 farming was in recession, so he went to India to run a tea garden on a 5-year contract, where he also joined the Indian Territorial Army as a trooper in the Assam Valley Light Horse. But in 1937, he returned home and scraped together funds to buy Abbey Farm, North Creake, which had been owned by Christ’s College, Cambridge, since Henry IV’s wife Sarah gave it as a foundation present in the early 15th century. Within a year or two, he was making £1000 a year as farming’s fortunes improved after decades of depression. He tried to farm traditionally with livestock and the Norfolk 4-course rotation, but enjoyed great success by using the latest techniques, including combine harvesters and artificial manures to boost yields.

As the war approached, he left his farm and re-joined his unit. He transferred to the Scots Guards, enlisting as a guardsman, destined for Finland. He spent 3 weeks in France teaching 300 volunteers to ski as part of this proposed special alpine force. However, Finland fell, so he was volunteered to join 1 Commando, which went to France after Dunkirk to find members of the 51st Division trying to cross the Channel near Boulogne. When he heard that the 5 R Norfolk was being posted to Malaya, he wrote to the CO and re-joined. ‘So, of course I got out of the fat and into the fire,’ he later wrote in his unpublished autobiography. Later, Maj Schulman, who commanded the Battalion’s rearguard as Japanese forces advanced through Malaya, became a prisoner-of-war. He survived 3 years on the railway of death in Burma and returned home to marry his fiancée Peggy.

Courtesy Eastern Daily Press