大象传媒

This is My Grandad's Story. I'm telling it as unfortunately he is no longer with us and I would like his memory to continue.

Grandad was born in 1920. His name was Stanley Edward Biggadike, Eddie to all who knew him. He was brought up the son of a farmer in the Holbeach Fens. He signed up with the 35th East Anglia Unit in order to fight in WWII. He was trained as a gunner for Desert Warfare but for some strange reason he was sent to the Jungles of South East Asia, something I never really understood. During that time, Japan had invaded Malaya, now know as Malaysia and extra forces were being sent out to Singapore to try and defend what was left of the mainly British populated area. This I think is why Grandad was sent there.

On the 13th February 1942 Grandad and many other men were captured. I think grandad had only spent a total of 11 days out there before being taken to the notorious Changi prison camp on the 15th of February 1942.

I understand Grandad saw his best friend beheaded. I don't know why it happened but it was one of many awful experiences seen by him. He saw many people tortured, both men and women, but mainly Chinese, for some reason the Japanese didn't like them. It is said the Japanese soldiers tortured the Chinese women by impaling them full length on bamboo canes. These are just a few of the horrific stories that came out of a Japanese P.O.W. camp.

Grandad told me once of a time he swore at a Japanese Officer. This resulted in him getting a beating and then being put into a tin box about 4 feet square. He stayed in there for 4 sweltering hot days and 4 very cold nights, being given only heavily salted boiled rice to eat and no drinking water.

Grandad did befriend a Japanese soldier called Kamaroon, probably spelt wrong but it sounded like that, and they spent time teaching each other languages. After listening to Grandad's stories Kamaroon decided he would like to visit England one day as it sounded a very beautiful place. Unfortunatley, the Japanese Officers took a dim view of soldiers and prisoners getting friendly and Kamaroon was never seen again. I know in my own mind what probably happened to him.

Grandad did many jobs in Changi, one of those was a "Batman" to a Japanese Officer, I think that is a servabnt. If the Officer was in a good mood Grandad would be given food, if he was in a bad mood then Grandad got a beating. He was also known as "The Rat Catcher", maybe this skill came from working on the land but it paid off as rats were the staple diet of the P.O.W's. He also learnt how to make coffee from burnt rice.

One day Grandad along with many other prisoners was taken away from the camp and made to walk from Singapore to Burma, via Thailand. This was to work on the notorious "Death Railway" for the Japanese, which they believed would help them achieve global domination. A 400 mile forced march, the last 100 miles of which he was bare feet. This railway was made famous in the film "Bridge Over the River Kwai", it claimed many lives of the prisoners, it is said that 1 man died for every sleeper laid.

There were many places Grandad saw whilst in the hands of the Japanese. In January and February 1943 he went to Thailand and in August 1945 he was in Saigon (the old capital of South Vietnam, now known as Ho Chi Minh City). Grandad always spoke of Vietnam as French Indo China, he was facinated by what he described as "The Amazing Golden Temples". As he grew up in the Fens where there is nothing except wide areas of flat land, these must have seemed out of this world to him.

During Grandad's time in Changi he made friends with an Australian called Roy Whitehead to whom he wrote for a number of years. Roy was from Alice Springs and after the war bacame a Bank Manager. Regrettably, that is all I know of him. Grandad also caught up with his Uncle at Changi. This came as a great suprise to him as he thought he had been killed previously. Grandad got word that he was in sickbay and went to visit him there, even though if he had been caught doing this he would have been shot. His Uncle Ray had been tortured and all of his toenails had been pulled out.

Grandad was released from Changi prison on 28th October 1945 and put on a ship for Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). The purpose of the trip was for rehabilitation of him and many other ex prisoners who along with him were extremely thin and needed to gain weight urgently. On arrival home aftera journey of about 3 months, he weighed 6.5 stone, heavens only knows what he weighed at release from Changi.

Granddad returned to work on his Father's farm until he was well enough to get a small holding of his own in the same area. He continued to farm until his retirement.

Grandad never really spoke about his time as a P.O.W of Japenese, the typical British "Stiff Upper Lip" I suppose. The bits that he did speak about were mainly towards the end of his life when he developed Alzheimer's disease. Sadly, this illness took him back to that period of his life.

I once watched a film with Grandad called "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence", it had David Bowie in it, it made him cry as it was the closest film to the truth about what happened in the camp than any other films made he'd seen. I have also read a book by Russell Brandon called 'The Naked Island'. He too was a prisoner in Changi at the same time as Grandad and spoke of many of the same things. My family believe that by what he wrote he may even have known Grandad in person. it is a shame i didn't read the book while Grandad was alive as I have many questions I would have asked him if i'd have had the chance.

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