Description
Object description
Ts transcription (12pp) of recollections dictated in 1995 describing how he was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion Cambridgeshire Regiment in June 1939, his training and service with the Battalion (53rd Brigade, 18th Division) in the United Kingdom (September 1939 - November 1941), their troopship passage to the Far East (November 1941 - January 1942) and service during the Malayan campaign (January - February 1942), his departure from Singapore by small boat with an official escape party on the day of capitulation and their eventful passage to Sumatra, their onward journey to Java and voyage on the river steamer WUCHANG across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon, surviving a submarine attack on route (February - March 1942), his appointment as a junior staff officer in Ceylon (March 1942 - January 1944) and his service as a company officer in the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment (19th Division) in Burma from September 1944 until he was invalided to India in early 1945; together with ts transcripts (6pp each and an annotated photocopy) of two letters, dated 24 February and 10 May 1942, from him to his family and the landlord of the 'The Spreadeagle' in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, a former quartermaster of the Battalion, containing excellent descriptions of the fighting in which the 2nd Cambridgeshires took part in Malaya and Singapore, his escape from Singapore by small boat and the voyage in the WUCHANG as well as references to the fates of his fellow officers and the men of his Battalion.
Content description
Ts transcription (12pp) of recollections dictated in 1995 describing how he was commissioned into the 2nd Battalion Cambridgeshire Regiment in June 1939, his training and service with the Battalion (53rd Brigade, 18th Division) in the United Kingdom (September 1939 - November 1941), their troopship passage to the Far East (November 1941 - January 1942) and service during the Malayan campaign (January - February 1942), his departure from Singapore by small boat with an official escape party on the day of capitulation and their eventful passage to Sumatra, their onward journey to Java and voyage on the river steamer WUCHANG across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon, surviving a submarine attack on route (February - March 1942), his appointment as a junior staff officer in Ceylon (March 1942 - January 1944) and his service as a company officer in the 2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment (19th Division) in Burma from September 1944 until he was invalided to India in early 1945; together with ts transcripts (6pp each and an annotated photocopy) of two letters, dated 24 February and 10 May 1942, from him to his family and the landlord of the 'The Spreadeagle' in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, a former quartermaster of the Battalion, containing excellent descriptions of the fighting in which the 2nd Cambridgeshires took part in Malaya and Singapore, his escape from Singapore by small boat and the voyage in the WUCHANG as well as references to the fates of his fellow officers and the men of his Battalion.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 1999-03