Description
Object description
Notebook and loose folios containing a manuscript diary / journal for May 1943 – September 1945 (with typed transcription up to March 1945, 41pp) covering Phillips' experiences as a Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) prisoner of war with 'H Force' on the Burma-Thailand Railway, describing in dispassionate but vivid terms his party's journey from Changi camp in Singapore to Kanchanaburi (Kanburi), Tarsao, Tonchan, and Hintok main camp, elaborating on conditions in the latter place with particular reference to hygiene, food and medical matters from his perspective as Senior Medical Officer (SMO), his duties continuing at Hintok River Camp to which the majority of sick prisoners were moved in August 1943, his removal back to Tarsao shortly afterwards following serious differences of opinion with Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Newey of H Force (who is referred to frequently throughout the journal), return to Kanburi hospital camp, documenting his own physical deterioration including a tropical ulcer, moving back to Singapore and Sime Road camp in December 1943, recording conditions at Sime Road in the first half of 1944 before its occupants were relocated to Changi prison in May of that year, commenting on the often strained relations between those POWs who had been 'up country' (to work on the railway) and those who remained in Changi, and on his own feelings of isolation and mental exhaustion, the improved conditions of captivity in other respects and the more conciliatory behaviour of the Japanese guards, the flourishing black market in Changi and its effects on POW behaviour, increasingly frequent air raids over Singapore during 1944 -1945 and the reactions of POWs and guards, the final months of the war and the liberation of the camp in August - September 1945; loose folios (with typed transcription, 33pp) containing an account of Phillips' experiences on the Burma-Thailand Railway from the time of his departure from Changi in May 1943 until his arrival at the Kanburi hospital camp at the end of August, expanding on the relevant journal entries and giving an eloquent account of living and working conditions along the railway; miscellaneous associated papers, partly concerning medical matters, food rations and other POW camp subjects, also including a typed statement by Phillips regarding the conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Newey in POW camps in Thailand and Malaya.
Content description
Notebook and loose folios containing a manuscript diary / journal for May 1943 – September 1945 (with typed transcription up to March 1945, 41pp) covering Phillips' experiences as a Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) prisoner of war with 'H Force' on the Burma-Thailand Railway, describing in dispassionate but vivid terms his party's journey from Changi camp in Singapore to Kanchanaburi (Kanburi), Tarsao, Tonchan, and Hintok main camp, elaborating on conditions in the latter place with particular reference to hygiene, food and medical matters from his perspective as Senior Medical Officer (SMO), his duties continuing at Hintok River Camp to which the majority of sick prisoners were moved in August 1943, his removal back to Tarsao shortly afterwards following serious differences of opinion with Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Newey of H Force (who is referred to frequently throughout the journal), return to Kanburi hospital camp, documenting his own physical deterioration including a tropical ulcer, moving back to Singapore and Sime Road camp in December 1943, recording conditions at Sime Road in the first half of 1944 before its occupants were relocated to Changi prison in May of that year, commenting on the often strained relations between those POWs who had been 'up country' (to work on the railway) and those who remained in Changi, and on his own feelings of isolation and mental exhaustion, the improved conditions of captivity in other respects and the more conciliatory behaviour of the Japanese guards, the flourishing black market in Changi and its effects on POW behaviour, increasingly frequent air raids over Singapore during 1944 -1945 and the reactions of POWs and guards, the final months of the war and the liberation of the camp in August - September 1945; loose folios (with typed transcription, 33pp) containing an account of Phillips' experiences on the Burma-Thailand Railway from the time of his departure from Changi in May 1943 until his arrival at the Kanburi hospital camp at the end of August, expanding on the relevant journal entries and giving an eloquent account of living and working conditions along the railway; miscellaneous associated papers, partly concerning medical matters, food rations and other POW camp subjects, also including a typed statement by Phillips regarding the conduct of Lieutenant Colonel Newey in POW camps in Thailand and Malaya.
History note
Cataloguer SWW