What I discovered shocked me. I didn’t realise I had so many military relations
On 15 February 1942 the Japanese captured Singapore, a strategic British military defence post during the Second World War. Its loss was a significant blow. Soldiers – many of them British – were rounded up and sent to one of the notorious Japanese prisoner-of-war camps. Many of them were to die there or while building the 258-mile Burma Railway as forced labour.
This year marks 80 years since the fall of Singapore – something WDYTYA? Magazine reader Thomas Price is keenly aware of. He is the grounds and gardens team leader at the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield in Staffordshire, and frequently works with both staff and volunteer team members to maintain the area of the site dedicated to those who served in the Far East. Just recently, however, he discovered that he has a much more personal connection to the memorial.
