Description
Object description
Photocopy of a ts memoir (153pp), written in the mid 1980s, covering the final months of his service as a gunner in the 118th Field Regiment RA in the United Kingdom and his marriage (January - October 1941), his passage on the troopship ORCADES and the USS WEST POINT via South Africa and India to Singapore (October 1941 - January 1942), his experiences as a member of a 25 pounder gun team during the fighting on Singapore island (February 1942) and then as a prisoner of war in Singapore in the camps at Changi (February - March 1942), Towner Road where his left arm was very badly injured in a road accident (March - June 1942), Roberts Hospital from which he was briefly moved on Japanese orders during the Selarang incident (June - October 1942), Changi again where he was mainly employed on light duties in the camp and had further lengthy periods in hospital suffering from avitaminosis and dysentery which in turn induced spells of severe mental depression (October 1942 - March 1945) and Kranji where he was principally employed on store carrying fatigues (March - September 1945), his liberation following Japan's surrender and passage home on the NIEUW HOLLAND via Ceylon and Port Suez (September - October 1945), his joyful reunion with his wife and his eventual demobilisation from the Army once his medical condition had stabilised (early 1946); and including interesting references to his wartime romance and readjustment to married life after his repatriation, his difficulties in coping with his ill health in captivity and his relations with his fellow prisoners; together with a hand-bound scrapbook compiled by him during his captivity including drawings, cuttings, photographs and other mementoes of his passage out to the Far East, miniature greetings cards drawn for his wife, camp passes, local cigarette packet labels and, in particular, small-scale reproductions drawn by him of programmes and posters for concerts and other activities in his camps; his Soldier's Service and Pay Book (AB 64), a letter (1p), dated February 1945, to his wife from the Royal Artillery Records Office about a message from her husband broadcast on a Japanese radio station; a photograph of him in uniform with his wife; and a metal identity disc worn by him as a prisoner of war.
Content description
Photocopy of a ts memoir (153pp), written in the mid 1980s, covering the final months of his service as a gunner in the 118th Field Regiment RA in the United Kingdom and his marriage (January - October 1941), his passage on the troopship ORCADES and the USS WEST POINT via South Africa and India to Singapore (October 1941 - January 1942), his experiences as a member of a 25 pounder gun team during the fighting on Singapore island (February 1942) and then as a prisoner of war in Singapore in the camps at Changi (February - March 1942), Towner Road where his left arm was very badly injured in a road accident (March - June 1942), Roberts Hospital from which he was briefly moved on Japanese orders during the Selarang incident (June - October 1942), Changi again where he was mainly employed on light duties in the camp and had further lengthy periods in hospital suffering from avitaminosis and dysentery which in turn induced spells of severe mental depression (October 1942 - March 1945) and Kranji where he was principally employed on store carrying fatigues (March - September 1945), his liberation following Japan's surrender and passage home on the NIEUW HOLLAND via Ceylon and Port Suez (September - October 1945), his joyful reunion with his wife and his eventual demobilisation from the Army once his medical condition had stabilised (early 1946); and including interesting references to his wartime romance and readjustment to married life after his repatriation, his difficulties in coping with his ill health in captivity and his relations with his fellow prisoners; together with a hand-bound scrapbook compiled by him during his captivity including drawings, cuttings, photographs and other mementoes of his passage out to the Far East, miniature greetings cards drawn for his wife, camp passes, local cigarette packet labels and, in particular, small-scale reproductions drawn by him of programmes and posters for concerts and other activities in his camps; his Soldier's Service and Pay Book (AB 64), a letter (1p), dated February 1945, to his wife from the Royal Artillery Records Office about a message from her husband broadcast on a Japanese radio station; a photograph of him in uniform with his wife; and a metal identity disc worn by him as a prisoner of war.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS
History note
Catalogue date 2006-08