description
Content description
His ms account (Army Book 152, 402pp) with few dates written as a prisoner of war (POW) in Changi Camp, Singapore, recording his experiences with the Indian Army Medical Corps (IAMC) in the Far East (December 1941 - September 1945), notably serving with an unnamed unit (hospital) during operations in Malaya during the "rapid retreat" via Ipoh to Singapore following the Japanese invasion (December 1941 – February 1942), including being injured and treated in Alexandra Military Hospital in Singapore (no dates); his captivity as a POW of the Japanese in Changi and working in a hospital on Singapore Island (February 1942 – August 1945), notably at Salarang Camp (August 1943 – August 1945); liberation (August 1945 – September 1945); and commenting on the catastrophic destruction of the defences by a Royal Engineer officer; the destruction caused by Japanese air raids; the suffering of the Chinese and Malay population; the shooting of an RAF officer for betraying British dispositions; the scorched earth policy destroying rubber estates; the lack of air support; Japanese tactics and "fierce pressure"; the continual outflanking and retreat of the British forces; the evacuation of the wounded; the desertion of Malay and Tamil staff; the shooting of nine Chinese patients by a Royal Artillery officer to prevent them falling into enemy hands; the heavy casualties; burial of the dead; the rivalry between the RAMC and the IAMC; the poor performance of the hierarchy, including senior medical staff; the chaos during the retreat, notably roads filled with refugees; attempting to evacuate Australian wounded to Malacca; the looting by troops; the fine performance of the Gurkhas; sabotage by fifth columnists; contrasting British and Japanese equipment; Japanese tanks, especially the Battle of Slim River; fraternising with the Korean guards; the reasons for the British defeat in Malaya; attempts to escape from Singapore; life as a POW, notably the conditions, working parties, diseases, the illnesses notably dysentery and malaria, the deaths, the food and the diet, growing food, stealing which was rife, and his fellow POWs including American, Australian and Dutch; Allied air raids; relations with the Japanese, notably the guards, the agreement, under Japanese duress, by POWs in Changi to sign an undertaking stating that they would not attempt to escape (September 1942), an inspection by a Japanese General and Japanese cruelty; the Red Cross; ENSA concerts, the massacre by Japanese troops of staff and patients at the Alexandra Military Hospital, Singapore (14 February 1942). Also included are two photographs of him (one in uniform, 1924) and one of an unidentified Indian medical unit (3pp); a ms transcription (5pp, December 2002) of his poem 'Malayan Malady'; and an ms 'Report on conditions of PsOW in Thailand, May – Dec[ember] 1943' (13pp) recording the move of 7,000 prisoners of war (POWs), of whom 3,000 had died by December 1943, from Changi to work on the Burma -Thailand railway and the lack of accommodation, equipment, facilities, food and water, medical stores and proper arrangements for the treatment of the sick and unfit, which resulted in the deaths notably from an outbreak of cholera and the brutality of the guards, and the likelihood of further deaths if conditions did not improve.
History note
Cataloguer SNR
