Hi Folks, Would anyone be able to point me in the direction of finding which camps (mainly Japanese)these POW's would have been put,and their out come.? My database has names of whom they were, but i would like to add where they came to rest, if possible. many thanks Ron
Hi Ron, welcome. For anyone to assist you we would need more information. There are a significant number of different Japanese camps they could have been sent to, as well as others such as the Philippines, and many places they could have been laid to rest if that was the outcome. Once you post some more details, name, service number, rank, ship, somebody will very likely be able to help. Wayne
Hi Ron, welcome. For anyone to assist you we would need more information. There are a significant number of different Japanese camps they could have been sent to, as well as others such as the Philippines, and many places they could have been laid to rest if that was the outcome. Once you post some more details, name, service number, rank, ship, somebody will very likely be able to help. Wayne These are the men i am trying to find their resting places for. POW Fatal Adams Leonard George 32 P.O. POW Fatal Archer ALBERT WILLIAM JOHN STO1C POW Fatal Birch ARTHUR EDWARD n/k L.Sea. POW Fatal Bliss DAVID KENNETH n/k A.B. POW Fatal Burgin Ernest 26 A.B. POW Fatal Crangle JOHN RAPHAEL n/k A.B. POW Fatal Cullum HAROLD n/k P.O. POW Fatal Davies Henry 22 A.B. POW Fatal Duffy JOHN n/k PO POW Fatal Fage CHARLES EDWARD n/k A.B. POW Fatal Finch RICHARD HOWELL n/k L.Sea. POW Fatal Gardiner Leslie John n/k Ch.Sto. POW Fatal Greig Henry Dollar 34 O.Sea. POW Fatal Halfyard ROBERT EDWARD n/k L.Sea. POW Fatal Hill GEORGE n/k AB POW Fatal Lees ALEXANDER n/k ERA3C POW Fatal Morgan MELVILLE MAURICE n/k STO1C POW Fatal O'Sullivan BARTHOLOMEW 47 P.O.Sto. POW Fatal Pearson MONTAGUE n/k JOINER5C POW Fatal Schofield RALPH n/k A.B. POW Fatal Stone THOMAS JOHN 22 L/Sto POW Fatal Wilson John Campbell 25 L.Tel. All from HMS Thracian D86 24th December 1941 many thanks Ron
Ron, From Geoff's search engine comes this info for the resting places of some of your men, enter the term HMS Thracian in the ship or unit box: Geoff's 1939-47 Search Engine I hope this is of some use? I was not sure if you needed the camp or the cemetery. But I guess the cemetery will be a large clue to the camp in some cases. Steve
Ron, For an individual search on each man use the Cofepow POW search engine: Record Details This is David K. Bliss's entry. Click on the simple search button and enter the surname etc. If the man is on the roll then he will also have a Japanese index card to his name, which are held at the National Archives. Steve
The following may help your search. The following descriptions of Royal Navy POW records are extracted from David Nelson's book about the Bureau of Record and Enquiry, a POW organisation which outclassed the IJA's poor attempts to keep adequate records, despite the enormous amounts of difficulty and lack of resources they faced. A lot of what they did was kept hidden from the IJA. A large number of POW chroniclers and diarists worked to keep lists of POWs despite the risk of being discovered and punished for their efforts. The main classification of files which contains examples of their work is WO361. As recently as April of this year some of the original files of the BRE have been released to the public. Having said that, I do not know where the Royal Navy files that David Nelson lists below currently are. R.A.P.W.I. was very under resourced in August and September 1945. You should also look at the Australian Archives. With the usual apologies and acknowledgements, from : "The Story of Changi Singapore" by David Nelson Captain, Singapore Volunteer Corps, Efficiency Decoration & Clasp, Mentioned in Despatches Changi Publication Co. Australia Published 1974 by Changi Publication Co. ISBN 0 9503243-0-2 ( from Chapter XXV) "The Royal Navy Records, originals and duplicates, were taken over at Changi by a lieutenant commander R.N., who asked that duplicates be retained in the Bureau of Record and Enquiry until notice of the safe arrival of originals in London was received." "Appendix A Summaries of P.O.W. records disposed of as indicated in Chapter XXV. Complete duplicates were left in Changi for R.A.P.W.I. " Repatriation of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees" SCHEDULE ROYAL NAVY 1. Nominal rolls Royal Navy and Royal Marine personnel. 2. Folder containing miscellaneous naval and Mercantile Marine data including: (a) shipping ex Singapore, February 1942. (b) all known survivors H.M.A.S. Perth (c) short reports and lists of survivors of some British and American vessels sunk in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans during 1942-3. (d) survivors S.S. Empress of Asia (e) ratings Malay Navy (f) personnel M.L. Flotilla (g) ship's complement H.M.S. Li Wo (h) ship's complement H.M.S. Tapah, and also lists of passengers. 3. Index roll showing Navy, Royal Marine, Mercantile Marine, Italian Navy and miscellaneous personnel. 4. Casualty summary. 5. Folder of survivors compiled at Palembang by Cmdre P.H.S. Reid, R.N."
without trolling the whole list, i see many of them were lisbon maru. I have a Lisbon Maru group at home. My chap survived the trip & was sent (from memory) to Fukuoka Number 5. I see that at least Adams made it to Japan alive. What I CAN tell you is how the japanese trated the remains of the POW's in Japanese camps. The remains were cremated & placed into urns. These urns were then labelled & held (NOT buried) within 1 of the local Shinto Temples where they were catalogued & stored. At the Japanese surrender, they were removed by the graves registration unit & were held until Yokohama was completed whence they were re interrred. Hope this helps. Regards simon
A search for "Lisbon Maru" at The National Archives will return 25 results, but will miss the two Military Tribunal file numbers. A close study of the descriptions of files in WO361 will reveal more possibilities. The Military Tribunal cases, or Minor War Crimes Trial files are at WO235/892 and WO235/1114.
Ron, From Geoff's search engine comes this info for the resting places of some of your men, enter the term HMS Thracian in the ship or unit box: Geoff's 1939-47 Search Engine I would always recommend that the vessel name only is entered (Thracian) and tick the 'Including' box to avoid missing some records. Many of the CWGC records (mostly WW1 though) have variations (HMS, H.M.S , H M S, H.M S, etc). I've removed most of the stray characters, but cannot be sure all are corrected.
Great information Gents, Ron will have something new to go on when he gets back! Thank you very much Gents certainly will keep me busy for a while over the break. Happy xmas one and All Ron
