Guestbook

Stephen Greif

UK

Please would anyone who has any information on Frederick (Freddie) Bradshaw who was a POW at Changi  and later became Secretary of The Stage Golfing Society , get in touch with me. Thankyou Stephen Greif

Nick

Brisbane

Thanks for putting this site together, I"m doing family history research and the Articles and Books you"ve listed will be an amazing help. NX71470 DJ Law 2/10 Field Ambulance was my great great uncle and a member of Roy M. Mills Detachment alongside Ponds Force during the building of the railway.

Alpin McGregor

Stirling

My father was a prisoner of war and worked on the death railway he was captured during the fall of Singapore

Mike

UK 30.01.2021

Ed, your Grandfather Corporal Kenneth John Taylor was with the No.1 Motor Transport Pool on Singapore. As with all RAF they were instructed to escape to Java to reform an attacking force to strike back at the Japanese. There are very few documents of who or how they got to Java. His Liberation Questionnaire shows him to be taken prisoner at the capitulation of Java on 08.03.1942. It shows him at 4 camps on Java until 08.01.1945 when he sailed in an unnamed ship, referred to as Maru 16 or O.S.K. Ferry, for Singapore. This was named Java Party 25. On arriving at Singapore he was taken to the River Valley Camp, where he remained until the end of the war. His liberation from camp would have been around 02.09.1945, although his Japanese Index card states 02.11.1945 which is actually the date when the Singapore camps were closed as fully empty.

Ed Wright

Hampshire

I am contacting you as I am doing some research into my Grandfather – Corporal Kenneth John Taylor (service number 952792), who was captured by the Japanese and held in captivity for 3.5 years in camps in Java.

The information I have is sketchy, but he was either captured at the fall of Singapore, or was on one of the ships which evacuated people from there.

Could you help me to find out more information please? If I could track his movements, that would be brilliant.

gemma SEARLE

uk

i also have two members of my family that are on the Singapore monument
at Kranji, we have visited
they where in the Norfolk monument
PRIVATE
LEONARD CHARLES PERCIVAL
Service Number: 5774334
Regiment & Unit/Ship
Royal Norfolk Regiment

4th Bn. and

LEONARD MAXWELL MOULTON
Service Number: 5775558
Regiment & Unit/Ship
Royal Norfolk Regiment

5th Bn.

Mike

UK 17.01.2021

Gemma. Lance Bdr Eric Searle. 148 Field Regiment, Royal Artillery. Address shown as Ayers Rd, Old Trafford, Manchester and a second address of wife in Altringham. Taken prisoner Singapore,
15.02.1942, Changi camp until March 1943 when entrained for the Burma Siam Railroad. Enslaved there until June 1944 when he returned to Singapore, and went into River Valley Camp. September 1944 taken to Keppel Harbour and boarded a Japanese Hellship, probably Kachidoki Maru and sailed for Japan. Ship attacked by US submarines and sunk alongside another hellship. On Eric’s ship, 515 survived and 435 were lost. On the second hellship, Rakuyo Maru, only 55 survived and 543 were lost. Taken by rescue craft to Moji in Japan. Sent to Fukuoka 25 Camp at Omuta which is north east of Nagasaki. Enslaved working in carbide plant. They learnt that war was over on 17th August, but only entrained for the start of their journey home on 16th September.

Gemma

uk

we are looking for information on my husbands grandfather
Eric SearleL/Bombardier
MILITARY DATE: 1939-1945
SERVICE BRANCH: Army
SERVICE NUMBER: 872123
DESCRIPTION: 1254: Far East: Japan; Fukuoka POW Camp; Name List, as of 15 August 1945
He was liberated on 02/09//1945 from camp fu.
He came home but never spoke about what happened. does anyone know the location of this camp or anywhere we can find more information

Andrew McCully

Australia

I"m looking for any information on my Grandfather George Thompson McCully who served in the Royal Airforce and was captured by the Japanese on the 08/03/1942 in Java.

Julie Corbett

Scotland

My grand William Selbie Black was a POW starting at Adam Road Camp and ending up at Ubon before he was liberated in 1945. Any info on him and the camps gratefully appreciated.

Mike

uk 05.01.2021

Stephen, re AC Gordon Holland. Sorry, cant be of much help. However, I think some information has become confused with LAC G L Holland. This was the person who was sent to Thailand. I cant find any evidence that G H Holland was sent to Changi or Thailand. He is not listed in the Java Parties to Singapore (none of 1 to 26) and his Japanese Index Card does not have any of the purple stamps for Thailand. Every stamp is just for Java. I think the Railroad information has sent you on a wrong track of searching.

Stephen Davies

Newton le Willows

I"m hoping someone can help with my research of RAF Aircraftman 1038562, Gordon H. Holland, who was posted to RAF Seletar in 1941, was evacuated to Java where he was made a POW.

According to Burma/SEAC research database he was shipped to Changi and then sent to work on the Thai-Burma Railway (initially at Nong Pladuc and then to "various railway camps"

He was then transported to Haruku (Haroekoe) so presumably this was with the (mainly) RAF work party sent there in April 1943. If this is the case it means his time on the Death Railway must have been very short...

Unfortunately there doesn"t appear to be a Liberation Questionnaire and the information on his POW Index card is pretty limited.
Gordon survived the war but like so many, didn"t really talk about his experiences as a FEPOW.

If anyone has any thoughts or can offer any guidance it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Steve

Keith Brewis

Nottingham

Hi I am trying to find all I can about my father J R Brewis Gunner Royal Artillery and his life in the camp’s on the railway, he was in changi 1942 Chungkai April 43 Nakhon-Pathon May 44 Takanum May 45.  He never spoke about it when he came back, his eldest son never recognised him when he got of the train at  Newcastle central station he died in Dunstill  Hill War Hospital 1960  from the complications of being a prisoner. Any information on the camps he was in  would be appreciated

Jim Cameron

Edinburgh

Many many thanks Mike.   I really appreciate all of your information.   I only found out about my grandfather’s history a few months ago- kept as a family secret.
Piecing together the story has been fascinating.  Many thanks again.
Jim

Mike

UK 28.12.2020

Jim, it appears you know the main detail of your Granfathers story, so probably also his imprisonment at Glodock, St.Vincentes Hospital, Makassar and Fukuoka-14, Japan. It is amazing the men survived the dropping of the bomb when they were only 1.1 miles from ground zero. It appears they were liberated initially on the aircraft carrier USS Chenango which took them to Okinawa with disembarking on 18.09.1945. I believe he probably then flew to Manila as he next shows up as boarding HMS Implacable on 25.09.1945 and sailing via Hawaii for Vancouver where he docked on 11.10.1945. Although there is no documentation available, he would then have entrained across Canada for 5 days to Halifax or New York. His final ship would have been either Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth or Ile de France.

Jim Cameron

Edinburgh

Hi, I am trying to find out all I can about my grandfather, George Irving. He was a LAC in the RAF captured in Java in March 1942.
He was eventually taken to Japan and was on the Tomahoko Maru which was torpedoed by a US sub in 1944.  He then spent the rest of the war in Nagasaki, including the bombing, working in the Mitsubishi shipyards.
I would be grateful for any other details folk might know.

steven cape

United Kingdom

Glenda, many thanks for that. I"m starting to think the same way, killed in action maybe. Its good to know that he does not appear upon the list of POW"s. Many thanks, Steven

Glenda

UK

Steven Wallace Franklin doesn’t appear on the list of Far East POWs. Was he killed on active service? Seems more likely given his squadron were in Burma in 1945

steven cape

United Kingdom

Hi, I wonder if anyone could help me with information regarding Flight lieutenant Wallace Montague Franklin DFC who died at the hands of the Japanese on 21.5.45 and is commemorated upon the singapore memorial. he was with 27 squadron I believe.His service no. was 115936. Many thanks

Mike

12.12.2020

Judith, a name would have made it easier to look, but using the number it doesnt seem to locate anyone in the POW Master File. Do you want to do a new posting with name.

Judith Curry

Stockport

My husband"s step father was in Changi from 1942- 1945.He was a gunner in the Royal Artillery and his ship was diverted. His number was 1098223. Any information appreciated.s

Malcolm Macdonald

East Hanover, NJ USA

Anne. Thank you so much. Do you have any other details?

Sean Neville

HODDESDON UK

Any information regarding izaak neville who was prisoner of war in japan
Information told to me was he was last placed in japan but no records of where

Malcolm Macdonald

East Hanover, NJ USA

I am writing about my father, Dr Ian Macdonald RAMC, and would like any information about him

Alexander Black

Retford, Nottinghamshire.

Hello I am trying to find some more information about a family relative who was a POW of the Japanese during WW2. Hector Mcdonald Hart DOB April 1916, apparently he wrote 2 accounts of his time in the camps but an uncle of mine found them so upsetting that he burned them and so we now know nothing! Any help please would be great. Thank you.