Lilly, Edmund J., Jr., 1894-1978

Colonel U.S. Army during and after World War II.

From the description of The Edmund Jones Lilly papers, 1945-1973. (US Army, Mil Hist Institute). WorldCat record id: 22730437

Colonel Edmund Jones Lilly, Jr. (b. 1894), a native of Fayetteville, N.C. , was a United States artillery officer in World War I and World War II. He served as commander, executive officer of the regiment, and regimental commander of the 57th Philippine Scouts. He experienced the Bataan Death March and was a Prisoner of War until 1945. After serving in France as the inspector general of the American Graves Registration Plan, he returned to the United States and was assigned to the Inspector General section at Fort Sam Houston, Tex., where he served until his retirement.

From the description of Edmund J. Lilly, Jr., papers, 1941-1974 [manuscript]. (East Carolina University). WorldCat record id: 609592017

Colonel Edmund Jones Lilly, Jr. (b. 1894), is a native of Fayetteville, N.C. After graduating from the University of North Carolina (1915), he taught school before entering officers training school at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. He was commissioned (1917) as a second lieutenant in the field artillery reserves. As a member of the American Expeditionary Forces, he saw duty in France during W.W.I. Lilly subsequently commanded a machine gun company in Panama and headed the ROTC program at Georgia Tech, where he remained until 1940. In 1940, he was sent to the Philippines where he initially served as officer in charge of both the American and Filipino schools. Lilly became battalion commander of the 57th Infantry Philippine Scouts, executive officer of the regiment, and regimental commander. In April 1942, the U.S. Army in the Philippines was forced to surrender to the Japanese. Col. Lilly was a participant in the infamous Bataan Death March, and he remained a P.O.W. for the next three years. In the years after World War II, he served in France as the inspector general of the American Graves Registration Plan (1947-1950). He returned to the States in 1950 and was assigned to the Inspector General section at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he served until his retirement in 1953.