Description
Object description
British officer served with Royal Army Service Corps in Singapore, Malaya, 1941-1942; prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-3/1943, on Burma-Thailand Railway, 3/1943-12/1944 and Kanchanaburi Camp, Thailand, 12/1944-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as officer with Royal Army Service Corps in GB, 1939-1941: reasons for joining Territorial Army, 2/1939; service with Royal Army Service Corps, 48th (South Midland) Infantry Div; reasons for volunteering for service in Far East, 1941. Aspects of operations as officer with Royal Army Service Corps in Singapore, Malaya, 1941-1942: voyage from GB to Singapore, 7/1941-9/1941; supply duties; opinion of remoteness of headquarters staff from fighting; muddle during surrender of Singapore; his first encounter with Japanese. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-3/1943: march to camp; how camp was divided on military lines; his work organising supplies; sources of supplies; allocation of rations; work parties; crawling past Indian National Army guards. Recollections of period as Prisoner of war on Burma-Thailand Railway, 3/1943-12/1944: reasons for volunteering for work on railway; train journey to Thailand, 3/1943; arrival at Kanchanaburi Camp.
REEL 2 Continues: his 'arrests' by Allied officers for disobedience; payment of prisoners of war and pooling money to buy medicines from Thais; prisoner of war belief in Allied victory; prisoners of war hope of rescue; receiving war news; method of maintaining morale; Japanese belief in own war propaganda; dangers of passing on news; role of Kempeitai; move to Kanyu 2 Camp; work building railway cutting; work regime on railway and life for prisoners of war; demands on sick to work; role of Korean guards under Japanese administration; Koreans later seeking of references from prisoners of war; prisoner of war illnesses.
REEL 3 Continues: staying alive on rations; growing tobacco; problems of working well for Japanese; differences between camps on railway; effects of monsoon; sick prisoners of war will to live; amputation of ulcerated legs; bed bugs; maintaining discipline; stories of beatings administered by Marsh and consequences; resilience of prisoners of war; effects of Allied air raids on railway; contact with home; move to Tarsao Hospital Camp, 1943.
REEL 4 Continues: his administrative work at Tarsao Hospital Camp; production of artificial limbs; cholera outbreak; brutality of Japanese guards; burials; reading and study at Tamuang Camp, 1944; sickness experienced; lessons learnt from prisoner of war experience. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Kanchanaburi Camp in Thailand, 12/1944-8/1945: move to camp and meeting with father; receiving news of end of war, 8/1945; arrivals of British officer; his celebration outside of camp on liberation; formal handing over of camp; compilation of war news for prisoners of war, 1942-1945. Aspects of period as officer involved in welfare work for prisoners of war in Bangkok, Thailand, 8/1945-10/1945: welfare work.
REEL 5 Continues: expenditure on prisoner of war welfare; rounding up of Korean guards and punishment of war criminals; work of Lady Edwina Mountbatten; return flight to GB; informing relatives of fate of dead prisoners of war. Reflections of period as prisoner of war in the Far East, 1942-1945: attitude towards Japanese; his objection to British honour conferred on Emperor Hirohito, 1971; spiritual effect of captivity.