Hello. New to this site. I am in search of any information about my Grandad, Phillip Ellard. I live in Denmark now, but have just been back to England and found his grave in Wealdstone Cemetry, after a lot of research. I have a newspaper cutting and a "censored" card that he sent to my Grandmother, while imprisoned by the japanese...I have found out that his service no. was 2134496. He was in no.4 p.o.w camp Thailand. Can anyone tell me exactly where that is? Any other information would be great as well. Thank you.
Peter, Philip's liberation questionnaire, from his time as a POW of the Japanese is on line. It is written in pencil and so some careful reading will be needed to identify the camps he worked in. Ellard, Philip
Peter, Just to add some more minor detail: Although his Lib Q gives his address as Gainsboro Gdns, Edgeware, Middx his regiment details lists him as 150 Dunhill Road, Goole. Yorkshire. His actual date of being sent to the Death Railroad was 30.10.1942 as part of 'S Party' It crops up many times about Camp 4 Thailand, but there was never actually a camp of this name. It merely refers to the fact that he was with the men of Group 4, and therefore dictates which Japanese command he came under for work and feeding responsibility. In case you are not familiar with the camp names, they are: Changi Feb - Oct 42 Tonchan Spring Oct 42 - May 43 Tonchan South May 43 - Sept 43 Rin Tin (Lin tin) Sept. 43 - Dec 43 Tampi Dec 43 - Apr 44 Tamuang Apr 44 - June 45 Lastly, not a railroad camp, but a road building camp: Pratchai June 45 - Aug 45 Mike
Rather pedantic but this railway should be called the Thailand-Burma or Burma-Thailand Death Railway since there was another (perhaps less well known) death railway in Sumatra. Not that there is any confusion here as to which one you are talking about. www.cofepow.org.uk/armed-forces-stories-list/sumatra-death-railway Tim
Thank you very much Mike. Yes, my Grandad was from Yorkshire...think my Grandmother and Dad (who was very young) and he moved down their, maybe at the start of the war? I was born in Edgware, and lived in Gainsborough Gds...nr.34 with my Grandmother, Father, Mother and Brother until i was about 8. I would like to go out and see those places in Thailand, at one point. You say he was sent to death railroad in October 42, i believe he was captured on the 15th of Febuary 1942. Have you any idea of where he would have been held between Febuary and October? Once again, i really appreciate your help...i'm trying to find my roots...Thank you for helping me.
There is a microfilm copy of the Judge Advocate General's witness card in WO356/13 for Spr. Ellard which actually cross-references to the card of a suspect, being "The Tiger", or Sgt Maj. Hiramatsu. Spr Ellard's "Q" form number is C511. There was no affidavit. The statement was on file JC/18 for Tonchan camp, which has not reached the archives ( very few JC files have, those that have been archived are in WO311. The Tamuang file is in WO311, old reference JC/26. It is full of statements, but none by Spr. Ellard.) The "Q" form will have been very short and to the point. There were many Q forms citing "The Tiger" according to the card system. Hiramatsu was tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and hung. The war crimes file is WO235/918 but a copy of the charge sheet is available online here: https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/9b0c38/pdf/. "Trove", the wonderful Australian government funded digital newspaper ( & other sources) resource is an excellent place to read about the Thailand railway and the subsequent trials. One report of the trial was as follows: "The Telegraph Brisbane Queensland Friday 23rd August 1946 NOTORIOUS JAP. FIGURES TO HANG FOR ATROCITIES SINGAPORE, August 22: Japanese and Koreans, familiar to thousands of Australians of the Eighth Division and of Middle-East divisions takenprisoner in Java and sent to the Siam-Burma railway, were sentenced to death by hanging, in the War Crimes Court here today. They had been charged with having committed atrocities in prisoner-of-war camps at Tamuang. Tonchan, Kamu Pungyisho,Tarsoa, Krlankri, Rintln and Pratchai, and at camps in Siam. Those sentenced to death were Japanese Lieutenant Usuki, known as "the Kanu Kid" by prisoners of war; the Japanese, Sergeant-major Hiramatsu, known as "Tiger"; aJapanese Korean guard, Motoyama,dubbed "Black Prince"; a Korean guard, Tokuyama, nicknamed "Donald Duck"; and a Korean guard, Iwaya, known as "the Mad Mongol." Three Korean guards, Matsumoto, nicknamed "Silver Bullet," Morimoto, alias " the Mad Bugler," and Minaka, dubbed "Singing Master," were sentenced to life imprisonment, while a Korean guard, Kumoi, known as "Bombay Duck," was sentenced to 15 years, and another guard, Tokuyama, the only one not nicknamed by the prisoners of war, received ten years. All were on the staffs at camps from the time of the commencement of the railway construction until capitulation. Affidavits from Australians were submitted as evidence, while Malayan prisonera of war who re- turned to Singapore after recuperation went into the witness box to testify to the cruelties practised by the accused. Large numbers of Malayan volunteer POWs were present In court today to hear their former brutal task masters sentenced to death or imprisonment. “ Whether Spr. Ellard was aware that "The Tiger" had been executed is an interesting point. The case would have been reported in the UK. It is good to see the usual suspects posting here. So far, nobody has mentioned the possibility of seeing the IJA card, or obtaining the soldier's records. The IJA card should be on Find My Past ( fees payable ) or viewable free at Kew ( or was the last time I went in June.) I am not an expert on obtaining records from the MOD, never having done it. There are threads on this site. These days the records in WO 347 ( released to the archives in 2015 ) are at least as valuable as liberation questionnaires. Using these I was able to trace my late uncle ( died 21/9/44) to Chungkai and Kanburi. The first "sight" I had of him between June 1942 and May 1944 in years of research which started in earnest in 2009 when I looked in May this year. Quite a moment when I found him. Spr.Ellard may not have been "fit" enough to be put on a "Japan party". If this was the case it may well have been a blessing in disguise, despite whatever sickness he may have suffered. A great many POWs who were shipped out of Singapore in atrocious conditions perished when their transports were sunk by "friendly fire", as happened to my uncle. For anybody starting out to research the subject I would recommend John Coast "Railroad of Death" ( he hated the title ) and "The War Diaries of Weary Dunlop." These do not cloak the bad things that happened but are balanced and, sometimes, entertaining.
