Description
Object description
Ms journal (296pp), with ts transcription (135pp), written shortly before the Japanese surrender in 1945 and in subsequent weeks, describing his capture on Java while serving as the RAOC Workshop Officer, 21st Light Anti Aircraft Regiment RA and his experiences as a prisoner of war in Batavia (The Koan School, Glodok and Boei Glodok Gaol, March - September 1942), Singapore (Selarang, September - October 1942), and Borneo (Jesselton Gaol/Police Barracks, October 1942 - April 1943; Sandakan, April - August 1943; Kuching, August 1943 - September 1945). He gives excellent and fair accounts of the organisation in each camp as well as the journeys between them, work performed by officers and men and relations between them, food, trade, finance and 'racketeering' as prisoners of war, military discipline (especially on arrival in Singapore), humour and entertainment, the construction, concealment and operation of a radio, morale (especially after the first Allied air raids in March 1945), the (belated) announcement of the surrender on 24 August 1945 and the scenes and events in the camps and en route back to the United Kingdom (September - October 1945); numbers of prisoners and deaths in the camps; ts newsheet (5pp, 1946) giving current news of former guards and prisoners; and an aerial leaflet dropped in September 1945.
Content description
Ms journal (296pp), with ts transcription (135pp), written shortly before the Japanese surrender in 1945 and in subsequent weeks, describing his capture on Java while serving as the RAOC Workshop Officer, 21st Light Anti Aircraft Regiment RA and his experiences as a prisoner of war in Batavia (The Koan School, Glodok and Boei Glodok Gaol, March - September 1942), Singapore (Selarang, September - October 1942), and Borneo (Jesselton Gaol/Police Barracks, October 1942 - April 1943; Sandakan, April - August 1943; Kuching, August 1943 - September 1945). He gives excellent and fair accounts of the organisation in each camp as well as the journeys between them, work performed by officers and men and relations between them, food, trade, finance and 'racketeering' as prisoners of war, military discipline (especially on arrival in Singapore), humour and entertainment, the construction, concealment and operation of a radio, morale (especially after the first Allied air raids in March 1945), the (belated) announcement of the surrender on 24 August 1945 and the scenes and events in the camps and en route back to the United Kingdom (September - October 1945); numbers of prisoners and deaths in the camps; ts newsheet (5pp, 1946) giving current news of former guards and prisoners; and an aerial leaflet dropped in September 1945.
History note
Cataloguer Backlog
History note
Catalogue date 1986-10