Description
Object description
Wordprocessed transcript (26pp) of extracts from his letters between June 1941 and January 1942 to his wife, who was visiting her family in Australia, concerning his service as a CSM and, from November, as a subaltern in the 2nd Battalion Federated Malay States Volunteer Force, with references prior to December to his participation in their parades and weekend camps, his mounting concern about the likelihood of Japan's entry into the war and views on Malaya's preparedness ('Malaya is not going to be caught napping') and, after the outbreak of war in the Far East, his platoon's deployment to Port Dickson where they remained until mid January when, after carrying out some denials, they were withdrawn to Singapore where he was killed in action on 15 February, the day of its surrender. His irregular letters in December and January suggest that, apart from some air attacks, he saw little fighting during that time, but reflect his distress at the loss of his home in Kuala Lumpur, where he had worked for an insurance company, and his frustration at signs of the peacetime mentality still apparent in Singapore. Copies of two interesting letter of condolence written to his widow in late 1945, giving some details about the circumstances of his death, have been appended to the transcripts from his letters, along with two family photographs of him taken in 1937 and 1940.
Content description
Wordprocessed transcript (26pp) of extracts from his letters between June 1941 and January 1942 to his wife, who was visiting her family in Australia, concerning his service as a CSM and, from November, as a subaltern in the 2nd Battalion Federated Malay States Volunteer Force, with references prior to December to his participation in their parades and weekend camps, his mounting concern about the likelihood of Japan's entry into the war and views on Malaya's preparedness ('Malaya is not going to be caught napping') and, after the outbreak of war in the Far East, his platoon's deployment to Port Dickson where they remained until mid January when, after carrying out some denials, they were withdrawn to Singapore where he was killed in action on 15 February, the day of its surrender. His irregular letters in December and January suggest that, apart from some air attacks, he saw little fighting during that time, but reflect his distress at the loss of his home in Kuala Lumpur, where he had worked for an insurance company, and his frustration at signs of the peacetime mentality still apparent in Singapore. Copies of two interesting letter of condolence written to his widow in late 1945, giving some details about the circumstances of his death, have been appended to the transcripts from his letters, along with two family photographs of him taken in 1937 and 1940.
History note
Cataloguer RWAS