Burma Railway Man: Secret Letters From a Japanese Pow Read online

  Louise’s parents had died and their house had been left to her, which was a helpful start for the couple. Charles returned to the City and in May 1947 joined the stockbroking firm of L. Messel & Co., with whom he remained for the rest of his working life, eventually becoming a partner.

  To their utter joy, Louise gave birth to a daughter, Margaret, in December 1948 and they felt their happiness to be complete. The family were living in Shirley, near Croydon, but later moved out to Tenterden in Kent, when Charles retired.

  One of his objectives was to travel the world. In 1973, Charles and Louise visited Thailand. Charles wanted to travel the same route he had taken as a POW and to show his wife the places about which he had written so much. Learning of his visit, the Foreign Office arranged for the British Embassy in Bangkok to lay on a car and chauffeur. They were driven to Kanchanaburi, where they visited the large and beautifully maintained main POW Cemetery. They then went to Chungkai, Nong Pladuk, and, of course, Tamarkan.

  Here they walked over the bridge, which had been repaired and strengthened after the war, ironically, by the Japanese. Sitting on the bank, with the bridge to their left, was the spot where the POWs were allowed their short yasme. The sun was just as fierce, the mountains just the same but a deep peace had replaced the noise and chaos of 1943.

  Charles spoke of those terrible days without rancour but was deeply moved by his visit. He was also fascinated by one of the original locomotives used by the Japanese and the Road/Rail diesel lorries, with trucks, which were used during the railway’s construction and were now a permanent exhibit.

  They hired a motor riverboat and set off down the river to Chungkai. Here they visited the cemetery and stood by the headstone of RSM Coles, whom Charles had helped bury. They later visited Nong Pladuk and found that the site of the camp was given over to a field of sugar cane.

  They paid a second visit to Kanchanaburi, this time by train, which they caught at Nong Pladuk and travelled to the Bridge and, again, enjoyed the tranquility by the river. A final appointment in Bangkok saw Charles meeting Boon Pong and his daughter. In August 1945, Boon Pong’s activities were exposed and he was arrested by the Japanese, imprisoned and sentenced to death. Fortunately, he was saved by the cessation of the war. When the Queen visited Thailand in 1972, she invited Boon Pong to dinner aboard the Britannia. For many years until he died, Boon Pong exchanged Christmas cards with Charles and his family.

  In December 1975, Charles’s former CO and hero, Philip Toosey, died in his sleep.

  In 1979, the couple once again visited the Far East, this time Singapore and Malaysia. Charles showed Louise the places he had so graphically described in his letters. The YMCA Building, which had been the HQ of the Japanese Kempitai and the scene of much brutality. Another place to avoid in 1942 was Changi Post Office, which was used by the renegade Sikhs, who had lost no opportunity to impress upon the British POWs that there had been a change in status. At the rather neglected Singapore Railway Station, Charles stood on the very railway platform from where he and thousands of prisoners began their terrible three and a half-day journey to Ban Pong. Changi Prison still looked as grim and forbidding, while the nearby Roberts Barracks were peaceful in their quiet surroundings. They visited Bukit Timah and saw the reservoir, which is now within the exclusive Singapore Country Club. At the impressive Kranji War Cemetery, Charles paid his respects to those comrades of the 135th Field Regiment who were buried there. Leaving Singapore Island, they drove over the Causeway and into Malaysia and headed for Penang.

  On the way, Charles stopped at the exact point where his battery had fired from the edge of a rubber plantation across a field of pineapples at the advancing Japanese.

  Now retired, Charles’s interest in steam trains continued. In 1980, a journey on the Trans-Canada railway was something of a deciding moment for Charles for, on his return, he became a member and helper of the Kent and East Sussex Railway based at Tenterden. It was no surprise to the family when, at the age of seventy-three, he announced that he was taking an engine driver’s course and went off to the Bluebell Railway, Sussex for a four day course. He arrived back home tired and happy – he was a qualified steam train driver.

  Charles lived out the remainder of his life happily involved with the Railway and sharing Louise’s interests in gardening, photography and local societies. He died in 1999 at the age of eighty-three and, amongst papers he kept in a safe, were his letters, which had only ever been read by Louise. Now we have shared that privilege and can only marvel at man’s ability to rise above a seemingly vast ocean of despair and hopelessness and emerge with strength and dignity.

  Bibliography

  Goh Chor Boon, Living Hell, Asiapac Singapore 1999

  John Coast, Railway of Death, Simpkin Marshall 1961

  Peter N.Davies, The Man Behind the Bridge – Colonel Toosey and the River Kwai, Athlone Press 1991

  Ernest Gordon, Miracle on the River Kwai, Collins 1963

  Hardie, Dr Robert, The Burma-Siam Railway – Secret Diary of Dr.Robert Hardie 1942–45, Imperial War Museum 1983

  Harries, Meiron and Susie, Soldiers of the Sun – The Rise and Tall of the Imperial Japanese Army 1865–1945, Heinemann 1991

  Kinvig, Clifford, River Kwai Railway – The Story of the Burma-Siam Railroad, Brassey 1992

  Lushington, Lieutenant Colonel Franklin, Yeoman Service – A Short History of the Kent Yeomanry 1939–45, The Medici Society 1947

  Rivett, Rohan, Behind Bamboo, Angus & Robertson 1946

  Stabolgi, Lord, RN, Singapore and After, Hutchinson 1942

  Towle, Philip, Margaret Kosuge and Yoichi Kibata (eds.) Japanese Prisoners of War, Hambledon, 2000

  Index

  97 Field Regiment, Kent Yeomanry, 4, 6, 8–11, 157

  135 Field Regiment, North Herts. Yeomanry, 15, 16, 20–3, 33, 101, 146, 147, 157, 174

  18th Division, 17, 20, 33, 41, 70

  Angells, Sergeant, 80

  Aoki, Second Lieutenant, 51

  Arrow Hill (Arohuil), 75–6

  Ban Pong, 55–6, 70–1, 77, 134, 174

  Bangkok, 116, 134, 149, 150, 153, 154, 155, 173

  Banham, Major, 32

  Beckwith-Smith, Major General, 32, 41

  Bluebell Railway, 175

  Boon Pong, 70, 134, 174

  Boyle, Captain, 112

  Bukit Timah, 53, 60, 79, 125, 174

  Burma Star Association, 119

  Butler, Gunner, 97

  Camp 154, 82, 85

  Cape Town, 18

  Changi, 1, 23, 24, 26, 27, 33, 34, 45, 55, 131, 174

  Chida, Major, 108, 133, 152, 155

  Chungkai, 61, 87–8, 89, 173

  Coles, Regimental Sergeant Major, 59, 88, 174

  Colombo, 160

  Consolidated Liberators, 145, 149

  Cooke, Captain, 82

  Cowie, Lieutenant, 94

  Davidson, Major, 112

  Dearden, Captain, 46–7

  Douglas Dakota, 136–7, 150, 156

  Duke, Brigadier C.L.B., 41

  Dunkirk, 10, 12, 13, 22, 166

  Escourt, 8

  Esteville, 9

  Fallerton, Lieutenant, 112

  Fane, Peter, 133–4

  Featherstone, Major, 94

  Follies de Noel, 62

  Force 136, 135

  Frills and Follies, 62

  Fukuei, Major General, 45–6

  Fullerton, Captain, 94, 110, 112, 140

  Gill, Lieutenant Colonel W.E., 89, 92, 95

  Gordon-Bennett, Major General H., 20

  Griswold, Major, (OSS/USAF), 136

  Guadalcanal, Battle of, 63

  Hashimoto, Captain, 51

  Hawley, Captain, 97

  Heath, Peter, 134

  Hedley, Sergeant John, 142–3

  HMS Ajax, 18

  Dorsetshire, 18

  Exeter, 18

  Express, 13

  London, 160

  Prince of Wales, 18

  Repulse, 18

  Win
chelsea, 12

  Holmes, Lieutenant Colonel E.B., 45, 46

  Hore-Belisha, Lionel, 5–6

  Howard, Lieutenant, 62

  Janis, Captain, 85

  Kanchanaburi, 56, 97, 112, 115, 173, 174

  Keane, Captain, 76

  Kent and East Sussex Railway, 175

  Kinsaiyok, 62, 66, 74, 76, 77–8, 80, 83–6

  Knight, Company Sergeant Major, 82, 83

  Konkorta, 88

  Korat, 153

  Kosakata, Lieutenant, 57, 62

  Kranji War cemetery, 174

  Liverpool, 171, 172

  Lloyd, Gunner, 31

  Lushington, Lieutenant Colonel F., 7, 8, 10, 12

  MacRitchie Reservoir, 34, 36

  MacTavish, Regimental Sergeant Major Sandy, 92, 112, 119, 135, 139

  Marieux, 7

  Marsh, Major, 112

  Mayes, Sergeant, 110

  Mengui, 138, 157

  Midway, Battle of, 63

  Moncheaux, 7

  Mountbatten, Lord Louis, 137

  Murakami, Regimental Quartermaster, 57

  Murkin, Battery Sergeant Major, 31

  MV Sobieski, 17, 170

  Nakhon Nayok, 133

  Nakhon Pathom, 115

  Nakom Paton, 138

  Neivede, Lieutenant, 112

  Nong Pladuk Cycling Club, 91–2

  Nong Pladuk, 73, 88ff, 173–4

  Northcote, Captain, 39, 112

  Obara, Sergeant Major, 51

  Oda, Lieutenant, 113, 117, 121, 122, 134, 152

  Okehampton Camp, 5, 7, 14–15

  Pacific Steam Navigation Company, 158

  Pearl Harbor, 18

  Percival, Lieutenant General A.E., 20

  Pleasaunce, Sergeant, 81

  Pomeroy, Captain, 62

  Poperinghe, 11

  Port Said, 161

  Primrose, Lieutenant, 82–3

  Rangoon, 155, 156, 158

  RCN Gatineau, 13

  Revue de Monde, 62

  River Kwai, 60, 67

  River Mae Khlaung, 60, 67

  River Menam, 116

  River Mersey, 171

  Roberts, Major, 82, 83

  Saito, Sergeant Major, 57, 59

  Sato, Lieutenant, 51

  Seclin, 9

  Selerang 45–6

  Sensitai aerodrome, 118

  Settitan aerodrome, 118

  Shenning, Staff Sergeant, 112

  Shonan Jinjya, 34

  Singapore, 19–23, 24, 37–9

  Sissons, 7

  Slater, Major, 97

  Slotboom, S.J., 135

  Smiley, Lieutenant Colonel D., 136, 139, 143, 148

  SS Bruges, 7

  Orbita, 158, 160 ff

  Stadden, Company Sergeant Major, 112

  Steel, Ken, 4, 107, 145

  Steel, Louise (neé Crane), 5, 7, 8, 15, 16, 21, 24, 35, 52, 66, 93, 98, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175

  Steel, Margaret, 173

  Suez Canal, 160

  Suziki, Lieutenant, 155

  Suzuki, Captain, 134

  Sykes, Major, 110

  Takasaki, Lieutenant, 62

  Tamarkan, 56ff, 173

  Tanbyuzayat, 57

  Tarssao, 77, 86

  Texel, 13

  The Jilted Lovers’ Club, 166, 167

  Tonchan Camp, 77

  Toosey, Lieutenant Colonel Philip, 16–18, 20, 21, 39, 41, 45, 57, 62, 65, 70, 74, 89, 94–5, 97, 105, 112, 115, 120, 133–4, 138–9, 142–3, 146, 148–50, 155, 158, 163–4, 172, 174

  Tournai, 9

  Trans-Canada Railway, 175

  Ubon Ratchatani, 116ff

  USS Mount Vernon, 17–20, 159

  Wakefield, 17

  West Point, 17

  Wampo Viaduct, 76, 79

  Wang Yai, 86–7

  Wilkinson, Lieutenant 71, 73

  Zauki, Lieutenant, 85