Description
Object description
Malayan Eurasian NCO with D Coy, 1st Bn Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, Straits Settlements Volunteer Force Bde, Fortress Singapore Div, Malaya Command in Singapore, Malaya, 12/1941-2/1942; prisoner of war in Changi Camp and River Valley Road Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 5/1942-10/1942, on Burma-Thailand Railway, 10/1942-3/1945, Nakom Nayok and Phitsanulok Camps, Thailand, 3/1945-8/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Singapore, Malaya, 1911-1930: family; education; employment as teacher; role as scoutmaster. Aspects of period as private and NCO with 14 Platoon, D Coy, 1st Bn Straits Settlements Volunteer Force in Singapore, Malaya, 1930-1941: reasons for initial joining Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, 26/5/1930; organisation of unit including composition of companies; weekly parades; attitude to serving with volunteer unit; character of unit; other volunteer battalions.
REEL 2 Continues: officers commanding unit; objectives of forming unit; recruitment of personnel; background of volunteers; inter-company rivalry; perception of unit's role in event of war; role and duties; combined training between platoons and companies; attitude of volunteers towards training.
REEL 3 Continues: rifle issued; nature of training in Singapore; relations amongst volunteers; description of uniform issued; contact with Japanese community in Singapore; impression of Japanese civilians; boycott of Japanese goods; construction of defences after Japanese move into Thailand; impact of European war on volunteers. Recollections of operations as NCO with 14 Platoon, D Coy 1st Bn Straits Settlements Volunteer Force, Straits Settlements Volunteer Force Bde, Fortress Singapore Div, Malaya Command in Singapore, Malaya, 12/1941-2/1942: mobilisation, 4/12/1941; initial deplyment into positions in Singapore; family's reaction to mobilisation; attitude of volunteers to mobilisation.
REEL 4 Continues: unit positions taken up on mobilisation; accommodation in Geylang English School; atmosphere and morale; start of Japanese attacks on Singapore; degree of preparation for active service; deployment and duties; Imperial Japanese Army Air Force bombing of airport; role of unit in mining beaches; sight of 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders marching back across The Causeway; hearing of the surrender; guard duties.
REEL 5 Continues: morale of Malay volunteers in unit; expected role if Japanese paratroops attacked airport; Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombing of Singapore, 12/1941-1/1942; threat of Fifth Column; orders they were given after first Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombing; recall of his platoon to company headquarters; mining and wiring of beaches; lack of knowledge of location of other platoons and companies; area guarded between Newton and Ford Motor Company; headquarters at Goodwood Park Hotel; awareness of British Army's retreat in Malaya.
REEL 6 Continues: guard duties in Newton/Cluny Road area; evacuation of wife to India; privileges enjoyed by volunteers' families; construction of air raid shelters; expectation that Singapore would hold out after Japanese forces captured Malaya; morale of retreating Allied troops; daily Imperial Japanese Army mortaring; use of armoured vehicle, 15/2/1942; reaction to British surrender, 15/2/1942.
REEL 7 Continues: digging pits to bury arms and ammunition; receiving news of British surrender whilst driving armoured vehicle, 15/2/1942; reaction of volunteers to British forces' surrender; expectation that Imperial Japanese Army would abide by Geneva Convention; disbandment of 2nd Bn Straits Settlements Volunteer Force; orders for battalion to remain where they were; Imperial Japanese Army use of volunteers to remove mines from beaches; method of defusing mines.
REEL 8 Continues: Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Changi Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 2/1942-5/1942: character of march from Goodwood Park Hotel to Changi, 17/2/1942; anticipation of short imprisonment; Imperial Japanese Army guards behaviour during march; arrival in Changi area; billeting of prisoners of war in camp; Imperial Japanese Army guards around camp; initial conditions in Changi Camp, 2/1942; accommodation; hearing news of other volunteer groups; reasons for younger brother Kenneth Eber leaving prisoner of war camp, 3/1945.
REEL 9 Continues: administration of camp; deterioration in rations; reasons for wanting to transfer to River Valley Road Camp, 5/1942 including conditions; daily routine; sight of ex-civilian photographer in Imperial Japanese Army officer's uniform; visit by Imperial Japanese Army general; living conditions; prisoner of war diet; Japanese authorities attitude towards sick and reasons for deterioration in rations.
REEL 10 Continues: request for volunteers as working party. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in River Valley Road Camp, Singapore, Malaya, 5/1942-10/1942: march from Changi to River Valley Road Camp, 14/5/1942; character of camp; arrival at camp; prisoner of war numbers; learning to count in Japanese language; character of working parties.
REEL 11 Continues: building and purpose of godowns; songs sung on march to work; tools issued to working parties with and rest periods; visit received from mother Mary Eber; making furniture in spare time; payment received by prisoners of war; stalls set up by prisoners of war to sell goods; news obtained during secret meeting with brother Kenneth Eber; secret radio in camp; availability of reading material; lack of Japanese authorities interference in camp management; cooking meals.
REEL 12 Continues: motivation for keeping fit; contents of South African Red Cross parcel received; selection to work on Burma- Thailand Railway, 10/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war on Burma-Thailand Railway, 10/1942-3/1945: arrival in Ban Pong Camp, Thailand; collapse during march to camp; Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Lilly's confrontation with Japanese captors; conditions on march and in camps; reasons why prisoners of war were sent to Thailand; character of Kanchanburi Camp and composition of prisoners of war; rate of construction of railway; removal of prisoner of war officers, 3/1943; daily routine; behaviour of Japanese guards; introduction of Indian National Army guards.
REEL 13 Continues: conditions of Indian labourers; prisoner of war supplementing of rations; daily routine, 10/1942-2/1943; Japanese captors introduction of task jobs; receiving letters; periods of hospitalisation; volunteering to be medical orderly; success rate of amputations and death rates; canteen camp; Japanese captors treatment of prisoners of war; completion of railway and removal to rest camp at Tamuang; selection of fittest prisoners of war for transport to Japan; fate of prisoners of war on route to Japan.
REEL 14 Continues: move of sick prisoners of war to Tamuang; Japanese captors selection of only European prisoners of war for transfer to Japan; decrease in death rate in rest camps; role in repairing blown bridge over River Kwai, 1944; Allied air attacks on camp on River Kwai. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Nakom Nayok and Phitsanulok Camps, Thailand, 3/1945-8/1945: move to Nakom Nayok Camp, 3/1945; character of march from Nakom Nayok Camp to Phitsanulok Camp, 6/1945- 8/1945; hearing of Japanese surrender at Phitsanulok Camp, 8/1945; morale of prisoners of war; opinion of work of prisoner of war doctors; evacuation of former prisoners of war to Burma and India and eventual return to Singapore, Malaya.