大象传媒

My elder Brother Leslie, started his school days in September 1920,on his first day at school he was told to sit next to another new starter his name was Maurice Prew,the school was in the Market Town of Banbury in Oxfordshire.
The two of them quickly became firm freinds, and not only at school, but at each others homes during the holidays,they both left school together and went to work in the local factory which made metal for building Aircraft.
In 1940 they was called up for Military Service, and both enlisted in The Welsh Regiment, after very basic training they was sent to the Far East, on a troop ship,
they was later both captured by the Japanese and put to work building the infamous Railway Of Death.
My Parents received a Telegram to say that their Son had died on that railway on March 24th 1944, and Maurices widowed Mother got her telegram to say her son had died on march 25th 1944,apart from confirmation letters from the War Office, nothing further was heard about them, as to where they was buried,or in fact if they had graves at all.
My name is Michael Thompson, and i served in H M Royal Marines, i to was posted to the Far East in the mid 1950s,where i joined the marine detachment on boared a County Class Cruiser called H M S Newcastle.
which was in those waters because of the crisis in Malaya,during 1957 the ship was told that it was to go down to Rangoon in Burma, picking up 8 Senior Officers of all 3 services on route via Hong Kong, they had been selected to be Wreath Bearers for Commonwealth Dignatries, at the opening of a cemetry holding 27,000 Graves, of all countries who had lost their lives in the Far East, there was Australians/New Zealanders/Canadians/ South Africans/and of course thousands from the UK.
On the trip down from Hong Kong to Rangoon, i was sent for by the Captain of the ship Peter Gordon-Lennox(later he became an Equery To H M The Queen)when i got to the bridge, he told me thati was to be wreath bearer for the late Lord Louis Mountbatten,
he was the First Sea Lord at that time.
Due to the very hot climate the opening was held early in the morning,and when that was over the Skipper had arranged for me to have the ships jeep and photographer to see if there was any chance that either of the 2 freinds might be buried there, or in one of the many other burial sites in the Rangoon area, he also had 2 wreaths for me to either lay on the graves, if not the memorial of the Unknown Soldier.
Knowing there was so many laid to rest here as well as many other sites, i never really had any hopes of finding either of their graves.
At the entrance to the Cemetery was a gatehouse and a Burmese Guard, there were also several young girls who tended to the graves, inside i found row upon row of black ledgers all with the different initials, i gave my Brothers Name Rank and Regiment,and to my shock, but delight was told that his grave was in row G grave number 27, in my haste i went off in front and stopped in my tracks thinking i should have asked about Maurices, so i went back only to be told that his grave was row H grave 27, they were in fact less than one yard apart.
I laid a wreath on each and photos, were taken, i sent one to my parents and one to Mrs Prew, sea mail took 6 months to get home and 6 to come back, so a year on i received letters back , the one from Maurices mother was a mixture of ink and tears,it being clear how she had wept as she was writing.
Sadly by the time i returned to the UK,
she had passed away but i know how grateful,
she was, that 2 such great and lifetime freinds were still together.
and for me not only the pleasure but the honour to be the only N C O who took part.
Michaels Story.

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