大象传媒

War broke out when I was 10 years old.

I can remember my father telling us to be quiet as we sat around the wireless to hear Neville Chamberlain announce on the 1 o'clock news that we were at war with Germany. We had to remain fairly quiet for the rest of that day, although I didn't really understand why at the time.

My eldest brother, Harold, couldn't wait to join up and enlisted before he received his call-up papers. He didn't want anyone to see him off at the station so I kissed and hugged him in the hallway and went upstairs to lie on my bed. I cried as I heard the sound of his army boots marching up the road. I can hear them to this day.

He was sent to the far-east.

After a while we received a letter from him saying that he had been taken prisoner by the Japanese at the fall of Singapore. Large sections of his letter had been blocked out, presumably by Japanese censors. Then one day, about 2 years later, we received a telegram saying that he was missing, presumed dead. Apparently he was among a group of POWs being taken by ship to work on another island. American planes spotted the ship and, unaware that there were POWs on board, bombed it.

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