大象传媒

My maternal grandfather Arthur Maugham (now deceased) was a Royal Marine posted to Singapore just prior to the surrender to Japan.He told of how the message had come out from the British Command that the surrender had been agreed.The Japanese soldiers could be seen waiting to cross .My Grandfather and a colleague managed to find a small boat leaving Singapore and escaped to Sumatra.On reaching Sumatra they had to walk across the island through the jungle living off what they could find or beg from villagers.He was six stone by the time he reached safety.He then boarded the SS Stirling Castle and sailed for Australia before returning to Britain.After the war he became a postman .One day whilst delivering letters to a remote farm in Cumbria he met a woman who had also been on the same small boat on which he had escaped from Singapore.

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