Description
Object description
Wordprocessed memoir (92pp), written in 1996 with later revisions, covering his service as a platoon commander in the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (12th Indian Infantry Brigade, 11th Indian Division) from (?) July 1941 and describing their training in jungle warfare and social life in Singapore and Malaya, their operations in Malaya from the outbreak of war until the Slim River battle in early January 1942 when he was wounded and his Company cut off and, after spending some time as an evader behind the Japanese lines, his eventual capture in late January; and also recording his experiences as a prisoner of war in Pudu Gaol, Kuala Lumpur (January - October 1942), his journey by rail to Thailand (October 1942) and his time in the camps on the Burma-Siam railway at Tamarkan (October 1942 - December 1943), Non Pladuk hospital camp (December 1943 - June 1944), Nakom Paton (June 1944 - January 1945) and Kanburi (January - August 1945) with interesting references to their treatment by their captors, attempts at escape, his work in the camps as a bacteriologist, laboratory technician and operating theatre assistant, his high regard for the qualities of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey and the long-term impact on him of his period of captivity; and an account of his arrival in Bangkok in transit to another prisoner of war camp at the time of the news of Japan's unconditional surrender, his evacuation by air to Rangoon and by hospital ship to India and his subsequent repatriation by flying boat (August - (?) November 1945). The memoir has since been published under the title WAR MEMORIES: A MEDICAL STUDENT IN MALAYA AND THAILAND, by Gordon Smith (Eastbourne, 2008).
Content description
Wordprocessed memoir (92pp), written in 1996 with later revisions, covering his service as a platoon commander in the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (12th Indian Infantry Brigade, 11th Indian Division) from (?) July 1941 and describing their training in jungle warfare and social life in Singapore and Malaya, their operations in Malaya from the outbreak of war until the Slim River battle in early January 1942 when he was wounded and his Company cut off and, after spending some time as an evader behind the Japanese lines, his eventual capture in late January; and also recording his experiences as a prisoner of war in Pudu Gaol, Kuala Lumpur (January - October 1942), his journey by rail to Thailand (October 1942) and his time in the camps on the Burma-Siam railway at Tamarkan (October 1942 - December 1943), Non Pladuk hospital camp (December 1943 - June 1944), Nakom Paton (June 1944 - January 1945) and Kanburi (January - August 1945) with interesting references to their treatment by their captors, attempts at escape, his work in the camps as a bacteriologist, laboratory technician and operating theatre assistant, his high regard for the qualities of Lieutenant Colonel Philip Toosey and the long-term impact on him of his period of captivity; and an account of his arrival in Bangkok in transit to another prisoner of war camp at the time of the news of Japan's unconditional surrender, his evacuation by air to Rangoon and by hospital ship to India and his subsequent repatriation by flying boat (August - (?) November 1945). The memoir has since been published under the title WAR MEMORIES: A MEDICAL STUDENT IN MALAYA AND THAILAND, by Gordon Smith (Eastbourne, 2008).
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 2003-07