大象传媒

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I was born in India where my Father was serving in the British Army, his Regiment being the Royal West Kents. After finishing school, I worked for the Burma Oil Company. During the War I served in the 2/9th Gurkha Rifles, and saw active service in Malaya in the rank of Captain. During the fighting down the Penninsula, the battalion took heavy casualties losing six British officers out of twelve. When Singapore surrendered all the British Officers of the Indian Army were separated from their men,and were sent to Changi while their men remained in camps in Singapore. One reason for the separation was that the Japanese were recruiting Indian POW's for the renegade Indian National Army that was to accompany them in the invasion of India. The Gurkhas suffered severe mistreatment for their refusal to join the INA.
In Changi, working parties were sent into Singapore and some amusing accounts of their contact with the Japanese came back to us in Changi. One was of a large shed full of foodstuffs where an Australian party was working. The Jap in charge had a smattering of English. He suspected the Aussies of pilfering - which of course they were. One day he gathered them around him, took a tin off the shelf, and covered it with a borrowed Aussie hat. He then climbed onto a packing case and launched into a harangue on the evils of stealing. When he finished he pointed downwards and said " Now I showing you how I knowing you steal. There it is tin and on top tin you are putting hat and when hat took away tin hab gone". And so it had, because while he was engrossed in his talk an Aussie had crept up and removed it!
In May 1943 I was one of an all Officer group sent up to the Burma Railway, ostensibly to supervise and administer. When we arrived at our destination, despite our protests, we were put to work on a cutting that came to be known as "Hellfire Pass".
When the War ended I returned to the Burma Oil Company and in 1949, resigned and migrated to Australia with my wife Daphne and my two sons. In 1952 I returned to Malaya to help raise, train and arm the local Home Guard during the Communist Emergency. On completing my service I returned to Australia in 1960, and got a position as Stores Officer with Evans Deakin Shipyards at Kangaroo Point. When the Shipyards shut down I was employed as Senior Stores Officer in the Buildings and Grounds Department at Queensland University in St Lucia. I retired in 1984 and now reside next door to one of my sons in Brighton where, at 91 years of age, I am Patriarch of a Clan of 4 sons and a daughter, seventeen grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
During my retirement I published my autobiography under the title "From Darjeeling to Downunder".
My website is www.lauriewest.com

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