Description
Object description
Illustrated wordprocessed memoir (circa 55pp), compiled in 1995, recording how, at the age of fifteen, he was posted as an assistant steward to the troopship SS EMPRESS OF ASIA at Liverpool in October 1941, sailed on her to the Far East but had to abandon ship when she was bombed and set on fire by Japanese aircraft off Singapore on 3 February 1942, was rescued by a minesweeper and, after a brief period of service up to Singapore's surrender in the Malayan Medical Service as a temporary orderly at a hospital in Singapore, became a civilian internee in Changi Gaol (February 1942 – May 1944) and Sime Road (June 1944 – September 1945), with details about their health and diet, working parties, Allied air raids and their liberation, his return to the United Kingdom and time in a convalescent hospital (November – December 1945); together with the originals of a number of the documents reproduced in the memoir, including a ts letter (2pp, June 1943) from the British Red Cross Society to his father with regard to his son's fate, a postcard (October 1944) written by him to his mother from Sime Road camp, a printed leaflet (4pp, September 1945) issued by the Ministry of War Transport to Merchant Navy personnel repatriated from the Far East and a ts letter (1p, October 1946) from the Malayan Governments Accounts Office concerning his pay for his period of service in the Malayan Medical Service, along with a photocopy of his Merchant Navy continuous certificate of discharge (2pp, 1946).
Content description
Illustrated wordprocessed memoir (circa 55pp), compiled in 1995, recording how, at the age of fifteen, he was posted as an assistant steward to the troopship SS EMPRESS OF ASIA at Liverpool in October 1941, sailed on her to the Far East but had to abandon ship when she was bombed and set on fire by Japanese aircraft off Singapore on 3 February 1942, was rescued by a minesweeper and, after a brief period of service up to Singapore's surrender in the Malayan Medical Service as a temporary orderly at a hospital in Singapore, became a civilian internee in Changi Gaol (February 1942 – May 1944) and Sime Road (June 1944 – September 1945), with details about their health and diet, working parties, Allied air raids and their liberation, his return to the United Kingdom and time in a convalescent hospital (November – December 1945); together with the originals of a number of the documents reproduced in the memoir, including a ts letter (2pp, June 1943) from the British Red Cross Society to his father with regard to his son's fate, a postcard (October 1944) written by him to his mother from Sime Road camp, a printed leaflet (4pp, September 1945) issued by the Ministry of War Transport to Merchant Navy personnel repatriated from the Far East and a ts letter (1p, October 1946) from the Malayan Governments Accounts Office concerning his pay for his period of service in the Malayan Medical Service, along with a photocopy of his Merchant Navy continuous certificate of discharge (2pp, 1946).
History note
Cataloguer RWAS