Description
Object description
Photocopies of four ms letters (16pp) to his wife from the Commanding Officer of the 48th LAA Regiment RA (16th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade) describing their voyage on the troopships DUCHESS of ATHOLL and DUNERA from the United Kingdom to the Far East via South Africa and including interesting references to conditions on board for both officers and men, the social composition of his Regiment and the men's aversion to the enlistment of their wives and girlfriends in the women's services, December 1941 - February 1942, and of two excellent ms letters (10pp) to her from Mukden camp, Manchuria in August - September 1945 recording his living conditions as a prisoner of war in camps in Java, Formosa and Manchuria and mentioning in particular the lack of mail and reliable news, the inadequacy of their diet, instances of physical ill-treatment (including that meted out to Sir Shenton Thomas and Major General B W Key), the liberation of Mukden camp by American parachutists and arrangements for the welfare and repatriation of the prisoners of war; together with a copy of an ms letter (8pp), dated 23 February 1916, from his eldest brother Lieutenant J A Pearson, an officer in the 8th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (36th Brigade, 12th Division), describing a hazardous tour of duty in the Hohenzollern Craters sector on the Western Front where German snipers were very active, and photographs of the two brothers in uniform.
Content description
Photocopies of four ms letters (16pp) to his wife from the Commanding Officer of the 48th LAA Regiment RA (16th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Brigade) describing their voyage on the troopships DUCHESS of ATHOLL and DUNERA from the United Kingdom to the Far East via South Africa and including interesting references to conditions on board for both officers and men, the social composition of his Regiment and the men's aversion to the enlistment of their wives and girlfriends in the women's services, December 1941 - February 1942, and of two excellent ms letters (10pp) to her from Mukden camp, Manchuria in August - September 1945 recording his living conditions as a prisoner of war in camps in Java, Formosa and Manchuria and mentioning in particular the lack of mail and reliable news, the inadequacy of their diet, instances of physical ill-treatment (including that meted out to Sir Shenton Thomas and Major General B W Key), the liberation of Mukden camp by American parachutists and arrangements for the welfare and repatriation of the prisoners of war; together with a copy of an ms letter (8pp), dated 23 February 1916, from his eldest brother Lieutenant J A Pearson, an officer in the 8th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (36th Brigade, 12th Division), describing a hazardous tour of duty in the Hohenzollern Craters sector on the Western Front where German snipers were very active, and photographs of the two brothers in uniform.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 1999-03