Changi Jail

[Lou Barron]

I have often thought back to the cells we lived in if the names the six of us pows all MN guys that we scrawled our names on the walls of the cell infact a lot of the other pows in the other cells did the same it was done in charcoal it would have been nice to have a photo of them but no camera but at that it it was to get out of the bloody place as quick as possible

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Lou.
I wonder if you Google it up whether anyone might have taken a pic at the time and posted it on Google or some other site?
Cheers Des
PS you have the dates of your release

[happy daze john in oz]

Lou, having read about some of the things that occured in there and hearing commenst from one man I knew who was a prisoner there I am surprized that so many lived to tell the tale.

[Doc Vernon]

Just how on Earth did they survive!
I have read Lou's account there and it is a very sad story!
People like Lou and others should be awarded a Medal just for surviving!
Horrific is all i can say!
God Bless you Lou!
Cheers

http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magaz...e-japanese-pow

Changi POW camp

The following is Changi and other prison,and the last Pic shows how the Prisoners carved their names with their Belt Buckles on the walls!

http://www.picsearch.com/imageDetail...art=1&q=Changi Prison

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/schol...s-_N94289.html

How thankfull all must have been to read this!

http://www.oocities.org/digger_histo...rang-awm-4.jpg

Perhaps of some interest as well!
http://www.ronlindeman.com/pagina15.html

[Richard Quartermaine]

Lou, Here is some memorabilia which relates to three colleagues of mine since 1957; Bill Flowers, John Parkes and Peter Britz. John Parkes is still around in his 90s. Maybe you know or know of these old soldiers. Also, during the 12 years I lived in Singapore over a period of 20 years from 1967 I came to know quite a few who were "in the bag" who had lived there before the war and remained there afterwards.

Message to QI Oldie Members,

The following message has been received from our Founder/Editor, Don Granter which speaks for itself:

Was sorry to hear of Bill's death yesterday. Bill was in his 92nd year

Bill's service record with QI/QBE according to his membership form was

1954/60 Sydney Branch
1960/66 Burwood Sub Branch
1966/79 Melbourne Branch
1979 Peace

Bill was a Japanese POW in Singapore, as were John Parkes and Peter Britz from Sydney Branch and the three of them suffered unbelievable privations during their internment in Singapore, Malaysia that have been well documented in many books.

Bill Flowers in a letter to me 14th October 2005, referred me to one such book by a fellow prisoner Dr Rowley Richards' book " A Doctors War".
The reference read quote:

"The trip to Singapore was bloody awful.Once again we were packed into enclosed steel rail truck sweat boxes, cooped up like circus animals in transit, with 32 men per small wagon and 66 to 70 in a large one, there was less room to squat than the last time. Not long into the journey Sergeant Peter Britz ( 0f the 2nd /15th field regiment) developed pneumonia. It was difficult to nurse him under such unhygienic conditions and our guards were nor willing to sacrifice any of their own territory to allow him to stretch out. I still had a final few H&B 693 tablets in my personal kit, which I administered to him. I knew he would not give up" and he didn't,"unquote".

Bill wrote to me again on the 2nd November 2005 in part, from Dr Rowley Richards Book the following quote:

" Years after the war Peter Britz sent me a personal note of thanks with a cheque for $1,000 in favour of the The 2/15th Field Regiment Association . His note read, 'To repay a debt incurred in a (rail) truck in Malaysia', unquote"

Peter Britz went to war from QI Sydney Branch and is now deceased.

This is just one more story of the atrocities of war and man's inhumanity to man.

From: Richard Quartermaine Spotlight publisher:

The last time I had the pleasure of Bill's company was in June 1969 at QI Melbourne's new building. I was returning from leave by ship from Sydney to my posting in Singapore with Margaret and the children and called in in the late morning. Alex Roger took us upstairs to watch the Moon Landing.

[Lou Barron]

No Richard i did not know these guys you mentioned i did meet up with a few Aussies but that was on sme of the working parties .A lot of the Aussies lived outside of the jail in atap huts but that was also very bad .As i have mentioned before the Royal navy ,Merchant Navy plus a few RAF guys was all in block c Floor 3 six bods in a cell a bit cramped up and the smell well we got useto it you could nt fart otherwise you had stuff running down your legs but there were a lot more pows alot worse off than us guys they say that there was 3deaths every day in the jail and around the jail the jail was run by our own people and they would workout working parties .One working party thati was on a couple of times was the one were we went out of the jail pulling a big trailer to get wood for the boilers in the kitchen that the army guys did the cooking .
The trailer had tyres but when loaded with wood it was heavy work .The good thing about this job was when we got back to the jail and unloaded the wood the cooks would bring the big army containors that they put the rice in when it was taken to the different part of the jail.These containors had rice skins all around the inside of them and we could scrape the skins off and eat it but i only got that working party a couple of times