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WWII Civilian Internees of the Japanese in Singapore:

Messages 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1997-8


NOTES: My site about Civilian Internees of the Japanese in Singapore during WWII has prompted a number of messages which would have overwhelmed it, so I have created this page especially for them. If you do not want your e-mail to appear here, please tell me when you write - Alex Glendinning - glen@itl.net
September 8th: From Chris Crooks

I am looking for information about my mother. Has anyone heard of a Violet Faithfull who was interned by the Japanese in 1942 I think? She would have been about 22. She originally came from Butterworth and lived on a rubber plantation and went to the boarding school in Penang. Am looking for any information at all on the internment camps - was there anything in Bukit Tima Road? Chris Crooks, 53 Castle Road, Woodlands 6018, Western Australia

September 8th: From Monica Tharme

I'm trying to locate a register of the Singaporean internees during the Japaness occupation.Could you dierct me to which appropriate organisation in Singapore that I could gain this information ? My father Loh Peng Hong (Peter) was working for one of the British forces before his internment.

September 8th: I am trying to promote a site in memory of my dad and a book which is my dad's WWII POW Diary. He was a missionary in the Philippines when WWII broke out. After the Japanese took over the Philippines he became a civilian POW. Please take a look at John S.Beaber's Deliverance! It Has Come! POW WWII Diary (1942-1945)

September 8th: From Fred Crook

My Grandfather Frederick George Crook (aka Bill Crook) was the Manager of American Tin Mine in Kuantan, Malaya. When they were aware of the Japanese invasion, he was instructed to scuttle the two dredgers and bury important machinery in the Jungle. He fled with his family to Singapore, where he put my Grandmother and my Uncle on board a Dutch ship Jan Van Der Burgher or similar, which was torpedoed. They were rescued by the Indian Navy and taken to India for the rest of the war. My Grandfather was dressed as a volunteer and was imprisoned in Changi for the duration of the war. During his interment, the Kempo discovered his secret about the mines and tortured hi to try and retrieve the parts. He did not reveal the location and in fact recovered the parts when he took up his role after the war. Does any one remember Bill Crook?

September 8th: From Jonathan Moffatt

Enjoying your website and some of the correspondences that have resulted. You have mentioned the Changi Register at the IWM. Readers of the site might like to know that the IWM also has the 1940 Malayan Directory which lists just about everybody - thousands of names - who was in Malaya then and their jobs/where they worked. This book once belonged to Captain David Nelson SSVF and while in Changi POW Camp he pencilled in hundreds of names missing from the published list; captivity information and some details of wives/evacuation etc. It is a remarkable document.

You also mention Simon Shelton-Palmer's new website. He has just started posting a remarkable Changi Autograph Book which belonged to his grandmother who died at Sime Road. Not only are there the signatures of female internees but some lovely poems and drawings/paintings of their unlovely surroundings.

September 8th: From Mary Whitworth

My father was a prisoner in Changi and then Sime Road. I have only sketchy information on him and I have been desperately been trying to fill in the huge gaps. I was wondering if you and your project might help me. My father was a Brother in the Religious Order of the De La Salle Brothers - a Catholic teaching order. His name was Brother Austin Whitworth. He was interred with other members of his order. All I know is that he was first taken to Changi and then moved to Sime Road where he helped as an orderly in the hospital wing. There is a book that was written by one of his order called I was a Prisoner of War. I cannot remember who it was by but I have a copy that I lent to my sister. If you are interested in this I will get you the ISBN and authors name. If you have come across anything about my father in your research, I would love to know.

August 8th: From Juliette Dazé

We are looking for any information leading to Fred Bird, sailor on H.M.S. Repulse that was sunk by the Japanese in Singapore during the Second World War. The story is that he was taken prisoner then went stayed on in Singapore after the war,. His half brother (76 yr. old) who emigrated to Canada from the UK after the war, has no leads as to his whereabouts.Would be grateful for any source of information

August 4th: From Helen Weinstein, Room 8055, BBC Broadcasting House, London W1A 1AA

I am the Producer for the BBC Radio Four history series called DOCUMENT and I am making a radio documentary about the experience of British internees at Changi prison. My programme focuses on the love story between Jack and Elizabeth; Jack who was an army doctor at the POW hospital at Roberts Barracks, and Elizabeth was was in prison at Changi jail, and how a quilt gave Jack his only message from his wife during internment.

I would be very grateful if former prisoners from Singapore Island could send me memories of their guards at the POW camp and at Changi jail. I would very much like to track down and interview guards from Changi 1942/45 (Japanese, Korean, Indian), If you remember the name of a guard and their nationality that would be very helpful. Also, if you have ever had contact with a guard or know of anybody who has done oral histories with former guards, please let me know immediately.

I will send out another note at the beginning of August with further details of the DOCUMENT programme. The documentary will be called THREADS OF HOPE and you can listen to the radio programme online via www.bbc.co.uk/radiofour = live on Thursday August 30th at 20.00 UK time.

From Philip Baddeley
I am trying to find the paper written by my Grandfather, Sidney Baddeley. I would like to hear from anyone who knew him. He was captured in Singapore and ended up in Japan. The reference I have is as follows: Home Port Singapore - A History of Straits Steamship Company Limited 1890-1965 by Professor K G Tregonning, then Raffles Professor of History in the University of Singapore. On page183 he gives as a reference: S Baddeley to Captain Sneddon, Pilotage Association, Singapore. 25 October 1946 War Files, Straits Steamship Company Records. The text quoted relates to the burying of Captain McAlister at Muntok in May 1942: "I still remember" wrote Baddeley after the war "the sound of the wind through the branches and its similarity to the sound of a sea breaking gently on a shelving beach. It did appear to be appropriate for the resting place of one of our cloth and I left with a feeling that if he had to die, he at least made a peaceful landfall." I wonder what else the report says?
 
Reply: There are two references to Chief Marine Superintendant Baddeley in Margaret Shennan's book Out in the Midday Sun: The Britsh in Malaya 1880-1960 ISBN 0 7195 5716 X John Murray: London 2000 (pp. 255 & 284). The records of the Straights Steamship Co. are not listed in the Singapore National Heritage Board: National Archives Catalogue but you might try The National Archives of Malaysia.
 
From Colleen Fancote
My father Edward Alfred Palmer was born in Singapore on 14 February 1914. His father , Thomas Alexander Palmer, was an engineer with the Water Authority around 1912. His mother was an Euroasian. Would you have any information on Thomas Alexander Palmer in regards to the water authority.
 
Reply: There are records of the Water Authority in the Singapore National Heritage Board: National Archives Catalogue .
 
From Kathleen Stubbs
I have been surfing the net to find some information about WW2 POW camps in Singapore and came upon your web site about your father and a photo of him at the Sime Road Camp and I am hoping that you might be able to help me. I am searching for information for my father-in-law Reginald Gordon Stubbs who was also a Singaporean Civilian POW. At this stage I don't know exact dates but as soon as the Japanese took over Singapore in 1942, about late January/early February he was interned in Changi Prison. He also spent a lot on time at the Sime Road Camp. Other information he cam remember is going by ship to Bangka Island (which the ship was bombed) and onto Mentok, then going to Palembang. The information we are trying to find out is, are there any sites (or who can we contact) that may contain names of internees at the camps that also will include dates etc. My father-in-law would like to get this information to help him fill out some forms.
 
Reply: Ask the Imperial War Museum to check the Changi Register.The internees themselves kept a register of all those in Changi Gaol. In alphabetical order, it records each individual's name, age, marital status, occupation, the addresses of spouses and next of kin, date of arrival and, in the remarks column where relevant, cause and date of death. The original is now in the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ. The register was kept until December 31 1942, so any internees brought to the camp after that date will not be listed. It begins with the men by nationality, then the women by nationality and ends with weekly or monthly corrections to the original entries, when no more space was available in the remarks column.
 
July 24th 2001: From Chris Poulain.
Reading through this really marvellous and often nostalgic, website made me wonder if just one of you many readers may be able to help me! Briefly, my mother and I were on one of the last ships to leave Singapore at the time of the Japanese invasion. My father, who, at the time was Assistant Superintendent of Police, in Singapore stayed behind and eventually ended up in Changi Jail - his name was Hubert Laurence Poulain, nicknamed 'Babe' to some and 'Polly' to others. He was a cook during some of his time there. He survived, albeit at half is original weight! I am currently in the throes of writing my story from around the time that my brain started working (in Singapore - the place of my birth), to coming home to England November 1945. The one item that I am short of is the name of the ship that my mother and I took to Fremantle. We landed there and I am as sure as I can be, on the 20th February 1942 which, as it happened, was my birthday! Can any one help me over the ship's name or there may even be someone out there who may have known my dear father! I recently acquired a book from our local library entitled 'British Civilians and the Japanese war in Malaya and Singapore 1941 - 45' by Joseph Kennedy - an excellent book! In the centre of this book are pictures mainly of ships and women and children waiting to board and boarding a ship to escape to safety. Plate number 3 shows a small boy looking directly at the camera - that picture is me! Talk about a chance in a million! Does anyone have any other photos that I could look through as my mother, who must have been just out of camera shot is not shown!
 
Reply: The Imperial War Museum furnished many of the pictures for that book - visit the Photographic Department.

From Greg Standen

I am the verger at St Barnabas Anglican Church in Bathurst NSW Australia. Bathurst is located 200km west of Sydney by road 241 by rail and 144 by air. In 1995 I suggested to the Rector the Rev Paul Woodhart that we should put a stainglass window in the church dedicated to all pow's, padres and civilian internees. In 1997 the window was dedicated and from thence each year I organise a week end reunion for all allied pow's,padres and civilian internees. I have a problem I am trying to find information about a British born man who was a civilian and was caught in Singapore when it fell in 1942. I believe they signed him up and was in the army, his name was Jack Scott. His wife and family were also caught and also ended up in Changi Mrs Scott I believe had 2 children in Changi but one died, the other one is still alive to day living in New Zealand as is Mrs Scott. Can you help me trace this persons where about or his movements whilst in Changi, I am told that he was a hangman in Singapore hanging the Japanese the war. I would also like to extend to you an invitation to attend our 60th anniversary in Bathurst Australia on the 10/11 August 2002.

Reply as above: Ask the Imperial War Museum to check the Changi Register.

From Angela Thompson
 
I am trying to find someone who remembers my father, FRANK SCOTT THOMPSON, a.k.a. "TOMMY THOMPSON", a British Civilian Rubber Planter, interned (briefly) in CHANGI,and then from 1942-45 in SIME ROAD INTERNMENT CAMP. He was the manager of North Hummock Estate, Klang, near Kuala Lumpur and had come to Malaya in the 1930s. He was married to"Tess", aka Therese. He was born in North London in 1903, so was in his early 40s. He was about 5'8" tall, stocky, swarthy, wore spectacles, and was balding, tho' previously dark-haired He became a Roman Catholic around this time and was very friendly with a Catholic priest who was also interned in SIME ROAD. Does anyone remember him?
 
From Simon Shelton-Palmer
 
Came across your web site this morning and was amazed to see a reference to the artist C. Jackson. I have a drawing left to me by my father of a police hut number 104 signed by C.Jackson. If you have any more information about this gentleman I would be very interested to hear it. I have a web site which we are currently putting together - you can see it in its raw form at www.tomtab.com.
 
Reply: Charles Gretham Jackson's entry in the Changi Register shows he was 62 at Internment on February 20 1942. His wife was in the women's section of the Prison and he had no other next of kin. Many of his drawings passed to other internees and several have survived in their collections. The drawing you have was drawn in Sime Road Camp. I would also like to know more about this man and see any more pictures he has drawn - glen@itl.net .

From Chris Lowther

Dr Arthur Hugh Lowther is my grandfather (1899 - 1981). He was an opthalmic surgeon with the Colonial Service and survived internment in Changi to return to Singapore until eventually retiring to Ringwood in the UK in 1958. His story is typical of many on your website. Have you come across a book by Guy Heriot called Changi Interlude, published in 1946?

May 28th: From Merle M. Ellis (nee ROBINSON).

My Father and Uncle were members of the FMSVF (Federated Malay States Volunteer Force) and were interned in Changi for the three and half years of the war. For some years I have been annoyed that there is never any mention of these men in the Aust. war stories. From my Fathers diary I know that they applied to the AIF to join, but were not allowed to. When they wanted to come home after the war no one would recognise them and it took a long time for them to be sent home. Do you know anything about them that would be interesting? And, more to the point, why can't some recognition be given to them for their efforts prior to the fall of Singapore.
 
My Father was HARTLEY RICKETTS ROBINSON, 45 RESERVE MT FMSVF. His POW number was E26. My Uncle was Phillip GLOVER, also FMSVF MT but I do not know his number. I would be grateful of any information anyone could give.
 
From Susan Batstone
I am trying to find out about my grandfather William SUTTON who died as a Prisoner of War. He was interned in Changi Prison and died in March 1943. I would be most grateful to anyone who could point me in the right direction on where to obtain any information on him or other camp veterans who may have possibly known him.
 
From Sharon Alexander-Wood
I read with interest your article on The British in Singapore and Malaya yesterday. My interest turned to a feeling of extraordinary coincidence upon reaching page 2. The "Unknown British Couple and Baby" photograph from the Singapore Archives is none other than a photograph of my great-grandparents and their youngest son. The photograph would have been taken in early 1909 as my great-grandmother died of typhoid fever in April 1909. What an interesting tool the Internet is.
 
From Nicholas Kulkarni
We are looking for any information on my wife's paternal granparents Edward YOUNG and his wife Dorothy (née STUBBS) who died in Singapore during the Occupation. As far as we know Edward was English and born in the UK. He is supposed to have worked for the Post Office at one time. Edward had a sister Mabel and another brother and sister but we do not have names. Edward was arrested and executed by the Japanese.
 
Dorothy was Eurasian and we are not certain of her birth place. She had a brother Robert and a sister Rose. Dorothy was run over by a Japanese military lorry. They were survived by three children Gladys, Phyllis and Roland Charles. Gladys and Phyllis married servicemen and left for Australia and India respectively. Roland left and headed for what was then British North Borneo. Sadly the children were barely teenagers at the time and their recollection of details after the trauma and length of time is limited. Should anyone have any information or even an idea of where we might look for more it would be appreciated.
 
May 6th: From P. Burke
My grandfather Edward Patrick Burke is one of two Australians interred in a mass grave located in the grounds of the Singapore General Hospital. According to my research there are some 300 civilians and 107 soldiers in
this mass grave which was used as an emergency water tank. Of the 107 soldiers, 94 were British, 6 Malayan, 5 Indian and 2 Australian. Is anyone else aware of the circumstances surrounding this mass grave?
 
From Lyall Boswell
I wondered if anyone had come across the name Boswell in Changi or on any list. My grandparents Alex and Elizabeth Boswell were both civilian internees. He worked in the MCS forestry dept.
 
From Janet Leeson
My grandfather was Frederick Victor Boswell and he married in March 1925 in Singapore Leonora Josephine de Mornay (nee de Souza). They lived in Singapore for 2 or 3 years after their marriage then moved to KL where they stayed until 1942 when they speedily left to return to Singapore and evacuation. During his time in KL my grandfather worked for a period in Robinson Department Store but I believe he also worked at a rubber plantation near the Batu Caves. My grandparents, together will all their children (and my grandfather's step-children) were shipwrecked soon after leaving Singapore. Those in the family who survived the shipwreck were interned by the Japanese from February 1942 and held until the end of the war in the Far East. My grandfather unfortunately died as an internee in July 1944. We know very little about my grandfather's family, other than he had two brothers named Clarence and Eldrick and a sister named Gladys. We think Frederick's father might have been called Clarence Edwin; of Frederick's mother nothing is known but his stepmother's name was Maria Josephine Orevee. We also believe that the family came to Singapore via a spell as tea planters in Bengal/Ceylon. There were 5 children from the marriage of my grandparents, Drina, Corrienne (lost when shipwrecked) Joan, Maisie and Kenny (now deceased). Out of my grandfather's stepchildren, only Malcolm is still alive. We really do want to know as much about Frederick and his siblings and any help that either you, or visitors to your web site, can give us will be greatly received.

When my mother read your website she took particular note of the e-mail from Ann Dickman (November 26th) who is seeking information about Eric E.F. Pretty. She is quite sure her father knew Mr Pretty from the days when they worked together at a rubber plantation. I am wondering if Ann Dickman knew the name and the location of the rubber plantation? Any information would be most gratefully received.

From Jim Baker
Americans in Changi Prison--I've written a book on the history of Mal and Singapore (see Crossroads) and, because of it and because I'm an American who has lived in Singapore since 1950, I'm deluged with requests for information about Americans in Singapore. The latest onslaught comes from the renovation of the Changi prison chapel combined with a local interest in all things American because of the upcoming free trade agreement. I hope someone out there can help. I need information on American civilians and armed forces imprisoned on the island during WWII. I know the names of the civilians--Rev. HR Amstutz, Beverley Glennings (Mrs Christina Folsom?), Dr J Hanna, Benjamin KcKay, Bill and Jean Bailey--but not how to find information on them. I assume that when I get through to CFCIR, they will help, but so far I haven't reached them.
 
From Erin Pizzey
The Gripsholm - the last boat out of Shanghai. I am trying to find out information about this boat. I was three and half when we were captured by the Japanese and put under house arrest in Shanghai. There seems to be almost no information about what happened to those of us who were under house arrest except for a few letters to say that everybody was fine? I know we were exchanged for prisoners of war at Lorenzo Marques. Do you have leads I could follow?
 
From Gail Hope
My grandfather Mr Henry Charles Ridsdale left England circa 1905. He married a girl from Ipoh and he worked in the Pudu Prison Kuala Lumpur in1912/1914. I would like to know how do I find records of his life out in British Malaya ? During the Japanese Occupation he was living in Singapore with his wife and children. The young girls were evacuated in 1942 to India. The two sons were sent to the Siam Railway. One died there and the other survived in a prison camp. My grandfather Henry Charles was killed in Singapore, some say he was executed by the Japs and some say he was an air raid warden and was killed by a bomb. Till this day we have never found out what really happened to him. I really would like to know who would have such records of his death. His wife died in 1942 of illness. Maybe you can point me in the right direction because it seems that I do not know where to begin. The family bible was lost during the war and all records were lost too.
 
From Derrick W. Roach
I recently discovered your web page and found it fascinating. My interest is due to the fact that I had family members who were interned by the Japanese when they invaded China. If you are familiar with a movie title Empire of the Rising Sun, that is virtually the entire story of my family. Those who survived talk very little about their experiences.

My grandmother was born in Tomsk, Russia. Her father was a famous general for Czar Nicholas and helped the Russian Nobility flee the country into China. My grandmother was raised in Harbin, Singapore Straits Settlement and Shanghai. She was very attractive and found her way into show business. She left China around 1937 - 1938 and immigrated to California after marrying my grandfather, William Roach. The family that stayed behind was interned by the Japanese because one of my grandmother's sisters was married to a British Diplomat. I am conducting research to learn more about my family as the surviving relatives will not talk about their experiences or about the family.

I do know that one of my aunts who is residing in Canada said that the Japanese were brutal butchers. She said that every day they were taken down and shown the rooms where they were told they would be killed. They were also told the date they would be killed. Fortunately for my family, they were liberated the day before their scheduled executions. On one occasion my aunt asked her mother (one of the living relatives who is currently in London) why the Japanese were beating a man that had been taken out of the back of a truck. Her mother told my aunt that it was her father. My aunt ran to try and assist him and was cut across the face by a Japanese soldier with a bayonet. To this day she carries the scar on her face. She has bitter feelings about her experiences and to this day will not ride in a Japanese manufactured automobile.

My research has been doubly difficult. I'm trying to research a Russian family that was originally from Germany that resided in China before immigrating to the United States, Canada and the UK. I think I even have family in Australia although I'm not sure. The British family that was interned was named Perkins. The other family names I'm researching are Zeberg and Zerner although they appear to be aliases that were assumed for immigration purposes.

From Michael Hooper

Dear Jonathan,

I have just read your letter to Alex Glendinning about your grandfather with great interest (December 2nd). You may be interested to know that certain members of the Johor Royal family were also on the Empress of Japan which left Singapore not knowing it's destination.I was also on that ship but don't remember anything about it as I was only three weeks old when it sailed for Durban in South Africa. My father was a civil servant in Singapore and an officer in the RNVR active during the fall of Singapore. He was captured spent time in Changi and then at Chung Kai on the Burma - Siam railroad of death. He was something of an artist and his drawings ( which I have) illustrated a number of books including 'Miracle on the River Kwai'. I actually returned to Singapore and Malaysia, after my education in England, and worked there for 15 years. In fact, I lived in the East Lodge of the Sultan of Johor's palace at Bukit Serene in Johor, and played polo there with the present Sultan Johore in the late 60's and 70's. I lived at there at the behest of the late Sultan Ibrahim who died in 1981 age 87. He was the son of the your fathers golfing partner and famous rascal Sultan Ibrahim who died aged 86 in 1959. I later lived at 'Istana Woodneuk' the Sultan of Johor's palace in Singapore before returning to South Africa. The present Sultan takes after his grandfather as something a bit more than a 'rake' as you will gather from the following newspaper article which I hope you will find interresting ?

From Heather Ridley
I am trying to help an Aunt of mine find her uncle who died Dec 5, 1944 . His name was John Colquhoun Slawson P/O(WAG) J95479/R165065 killed in Action Dec 5, 1944 Squadron Liberator aircraft missing. No known grave. His name is supposedly on the above name Memorial but I can't find any official listing of the names on this memorial. He was born in Toronto, Ontario Canada.
 
From Philippa Schmiegelow
My grandfather, Walter Vanrenen, and his two sons, Donald (Donnie) and Frank(see Spencer Chapman, "The Jungle is Neutral", 1949), were all rubber planters in Malaya. Frank died behind enemy lines in the early days of the invasion. Donnie took Frank's pregnant wife, Margaret, to Singapore by car. She never saw her husband again and, of course, Sheila, their then unborn daughter, never knew her father. My mother, Anne Vanrenen, I (aged 6 mths) and my Amah went by train to Singapore. My mother & I stayed in a safe house for a couple of weeks before being evacuated on a troop ship bound for Australia. We left Singapore, I believe, late in December, and spent the war years in a variety of houses with other women friends of my mother's who had also been evacuated, and their chiildren, in and around Perth and Adelaide. My father, like many others, was interned for the duration of the war; where, I do not know. I was born in Batu-Gajah; our estate, Rubana, was near Teluk Anson. This is only a brief synopsis but encapsulates most of what I know. I would be particularly interested in hearing how the women survived the journey from Singapore to Australia aboard a ship with little fresh water and crowded with women, small children and babies. They, of course, were the lucky ones who got out before the harbour went up in flames. Your pages are a rich resource for those of us who are anxious to discover more of our personal histories.
 
January 17th: From Andrea Barnett
My mother, Olga Woodhouse (née Chopard) is compiling a book about her experiences during her internment in Changi and Sime Road. At the end of 1945, she was ten years old and says that a couple or more of American naval ships entertained the children from the prison camps. Are there any records showing the names of those ships? I would be grateful if anyone could let me know.
 
January 17th: From Sam Campbell
My Grandfather, Dr O E Fisher, was an internee in Changi during WWII. We have little information from the time but a small portion of diary did survive. This has been transcribed and is online at www.samcampbell.co.uk . If it is of interest to anyone please have a look. Also included are notes from talks given by my grandparents about that period.
 
January 17th: From Wendy Klein [formerly Leahy]
My great uncle, Edmund John [Ned] Leahy was imprisoned by the Japanese from the occupation of Singapore until liberation. He was held in Changi for the first two years, and from then on in the Sime Road camp. A miner, he'd been employed as executive officer by an English rubber and tin company in Malay before the war. Ned was born in New Zealand on 21 06 1884, but lived in Asia for most of his adult life. As a result, my father, born in 1937, had very few memories of his uncle. I would be very grateful if any of your correspondents were to have information of him. We do have a newspaper article, undated, published on Ned's return to New Zealand:
 
BACK TO MALAYA: Ex-Prisoner's Hope: Holiday in the Dominion.
After a short holiday in New Zealand, Mr E J Leahy, who arrived in Auckland yesterday with other released POWs, hopes to return to his position as an executive officer in an English rubber and tin firm in Malay. His firm, he commented when interviewed, intended to commence operations again when the military control was relaxed...`in about six months.' In the period while he was a prisoner of the Japanese following Singapore's fall, Mr Leahy, a 60 year old New Zealander by birth, though he has spent most of his life in the Far East, lost seven stone in weight, but said there were hundreds of cases worse than his, and many of his fellow-prisoners died with less than 50lb on them. He was captured on February 15 1942, after fleeing from the advancing Japanese forces. He actually spent New Year's night that year in the bush and after reaching Singapore was drafted to the naval base where he worked for three weeks. When the Japanese took over we were told to gather a few clothes sufficient to cover the needs of ten days,' says Mr Leahy. `Those ten days stretched out to three and a half years.'
 
In Changi and Sime:
The first two years of captivity he spent in the notorious Changi camp. He was then taken to the Sime camp, where prisoners lived on the vegetables they grew themselves. Ultimately there were about 1200 women of mixed nationalities in this camp; they were segregated from the men and it was not until about 18 months ago that wives were reunited with husbands. Then they were only permitted to meet in an orchard at certain times on week-ends.
Those prisoners employed on military work, such as the digging of underground tunnels, said Mr Leahy, were supplied with extra food - an additional 100 grams of rice and a little more tapioca, than the prisoners growing the vegetables. Occasionally prisoners were able to be excused from work by obtaining a chit from one of the 150 English doctors imprisoned in the camp. The hospital was always full and the mortality rate very high. Deaths through malnutrition occurred daily.
 
`Disgraceful Things:'
`Personally, I fluked it without getting any bashes,' said Mr Leahy, `But the guards did some disgraceful things, especially when they had been drinking the locally-manufactured liquor. Wednesday was always the Japs' day for liquor and it was hard for anyone to avoid an incident then.' `The biggest crimes were done by the Gestapo of military police...on hearing that there were wireless sets in the camp, they made a thorough search and finding four or five sets, took 50 of the more prominent prisoners, including judges and doctors, and confined them until they were nearly starved to death. They then sent them back to the camp where 50% of them ....died. Bishop Wilson of Singapore was one of those in the Gestapo's hands for 12 months.' Mr Leahy said that the...[worst?] Japanese guards were those [who] were civilians who had been [given] military rank for the purpose of guarding the prisoners. They [had] been business people in and [around] Singapore before the war and [their] malice appeared to be deeper...the pleasure they felt at having an upper handover their rivals...commerce.
Comments/Corrections/Additions: glen@itl.net
Alex Glendinning, 1 Tara Heights, New St John's Road, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3LE, UK
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