大象传媒

This story was given to Conor Garrett and transcribed by volunteer Mairead Gilheany

I joined up in 1939 and was in the RAF until 1946. I trained in England and was sent to the Western Desert before being posted to the Far East where I was taken prisoner by the Japanese. I was a prisoner of war for three years and 8 months. I was in various camps and this is what life was like for the prisoners. For breakfast there was rice without sugar or milk and sometimes we could see the weevils running through it. I suffered malaria, dysentery, beri- beri, scabies and ringworm. There were hundreds in the camp and when anyone died, the person was put on a plank and weights tied around their feet and shoved into the water from a boat. The fish would eat the flesh and the skeleton would eventually come back to the surface.

Sometimes we would sleep on the ground and other times we would sleep on bamboo. During the day we were sent out in working parties to repair roads or build a new runway. Conditions were very bad and us prisoners thought we were there for the rest of our lives.

I would never have got out except for the bombing of Hiroshima. When I was released I came back to England to a hospital in Gloucester. I got 4 months leave to come home after that.

I found it very hard to readjust to normal life.

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