We soldiers didn't want to surrender; we wanted to keep on fighting. You can imagine how surprised the Japanese were at the surrender. When we surrendered the Japanese troops came up behind us and we had to destroy our guns, then we were marched to Changi prison.
I was given several jobs; one was growing vegetables in terraced fields. I was put in charge of counting out the tools and counting them back in again. If they weren't all there they kept us on until we found them.
I also had to work stripping parts out of car engines; you see the Japanese were desperate for parts. One day we had to take a convoy of trucks down to the harbour, and as fuel was in very short supply the lead truck was the only one that had any fuel and pulled the rest of the trucks that had been lashed together. There was a soldier in each truck to steer.
When we got into town an Indian policeman stopped the lead truck to let a Japanese officer and his driver through. As you can imagine, each truck ran into the truck in front and all you could hear was the breaking of glass headlights. We all got out, laughing as we could see the funny side, but the Japanese soldier got out of his car, drew his sword and made us all kneel down at the roadside and lay our heads on the pavement. All we could do was wait for his sword to come down on us, but he suddenly started to laugh and ordered us to stand and get back in the trucks. He then turned to the very tall Indian policeman and stretched all of his 5' 2" stature to whack him over the head. He sent him flying, the scene was very funny.
I was then put to work on building the Thai-Burma Railway.
We were transported there in cattle wagons for five days and there was no sanitary provision. The only food was rice with weevils in it, so at least we had our meat ration!
The conditions were brutal, we would have to turn out for a parade and then work from dawn to dusk, and if we didn't complete our tasks for the day we were given a whacking. All this on just two bowls of rice per day. Our legs were leaden by the end of the day, we had no machinery. We worked in groups of four, two with bamboo pools suspending sacking, one filling the sacking with earth and stones from the bottom and the fourth stamping down the mounds on the top; that was the easy job, even without boots!
We also ad to fill an area 5 yds x 3 yds with small stones which we chiselled out from the quarry. We worked in teams of 10-12 men, us and the Australians. Again it was from dawn til dusk in searing heat. We were given set targets and given more whackings if we didn't make them.
I was lucky as I had run with the Hernehill Harriers before the war so I had strong legs. That helped me a lot. I was determined to survive and the thought that my Scottish fiancee was waiting for me kept me going. We used to try and get one over on the Japanese guards but when we got caught out we got a whacking!"
By 1943 the railway line was completed and the POWs were then divided into two groups, half being sent to Japan to work in the mines and half sent to Singapore to build defences. Those going to Japan were sent in unmarked boats with no Red Cross markings, a lot of the boats were torpedoed and sank. Then the survivors worked in horrendous conditions in the mines.
I was lucky, I was sent to Singapore to build defence tunnels.
The one day the guards didn't show up, so we just thought, great, a day off! We thought that was strange as we only had one day a year off, on the Emperor's birthday. It happened again the next day and we heard a weapon ad been dropped."
There was an order to shoot all POWs if the Japanese had to surrender, but this never happened as the guards had been withdrawn. The Commander in Singapore then took a week to surrender, despite being told to do so immediately by the Emperor.
The first person I saw was an Airborne Paras RAF man walking down the road; we just said hello, good weather today! Then within no time at all Lady Mountbatten came to visit us, shortly followed by Lord Mountbatten. It was amazing! You have never seen such a rag bag lot of a Guard of Honour! We raided the place and found old bits of uniform and brightly coloured t-shirts.
We had a motley collection of uniforms and there was Lord Mountbatten in a gleaming white suit complete with medals and sashes. As for us, we were all underweight and covered in scabs, sores and bandages around our legs to hide our tropical ulcers.
I'll never forget it, there were three rows of 30; 30 Brits,30 Aussies and 30 Dutch, that was all that could actually stand up at the time. Lord Mountbatten inspected us as if we were guards outside Buckingham Palace!
Within a month Jack had gone from an emaciated 6 stones in weight to 11 stones and was on a Polish ship bound for Britain.
He and his fellow POWs docked at Liverpool and caught the train down to London, where they were quickly despatched to their homes by the WRVS.
When I went home I knocked on the door and said hello to my Dad. Mum was over the road at a neighbour's house, so I went there straight away. The neighbour just let out a scream and then I saw my Mum. I think I inherited my Mum's personality and that got me through it too. She was quite a character.
Jack went on to marry his fiancee who, despite only receiving two letters from him whilst he was in a prisoner of war camp, waited for his return. He moved to Peebles and worked for Standard Life Insurance in Edinburgh before moving to Birmingham to set up a new office for the company. Sadly, his wife died soon afterwards and Jack was left a widow. Jack was lucky enough to meet and marry his second wife, they lived in Weston-Super-Mer. But tragedy hit Jack again and his wife passed away.
On his own once more, Jack wanted to return to Peebles, but there was nowhere suitable for him to live, so a nephew suggested Largs as an alternative. It was in Largs that Jack met his third wife Maddie, now 84. Romance blossomed and the couple have been married for 5 years.
Jack shows no bitterness towards his captors in Japan.
"You see, they are different from us. They used to beat their own soldiers too, not just us. If we had done that we would have been court-martialled. And they weren't all bad."
But behind those twinkling eyes unwanted memories appear and he changes the subject with a smile.
Article published in the Largs & Millport Weekly News.
