The Soul and The Sea- search

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by Saz, Dec 14, 2012.

  1. Saz

    Saz Junior Member

    Thank you all so much. We are building a greater picture of Doug and his comrades story and with the photos and POW cards, will have so much to give to his daughter (we are saving it all to give to her on Christmas) One thing more.... we bought the SOul and The Sea hardback from Ebay and to our absoloute delight it is a copy that Doug signed .
     
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  2. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    That's great Sarah, almost like the icing on the cake. And I am quite jealous because I still do not have a copy of the book myself.

    Your original post set off a remarkable chain reaction which has touched the hearts of many on this forum, so well done to you and of course Matt.

    Merry Christmas.


    Steve
     
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  3. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Hi, folks,

    Signed by Doug!! Definitely the icing on the cake, and his daughter (Saz's mother-in-law) is going to receive one unique Christmas present.

    Below is another offering: the wording of a letter written after liberation by Leonard "Tiny" Dainty to the mother of "Doc" Kilgour.

    Happy holidays to all,

    Matt

    S/Cdr. L. Dainty, I.A.O.C.,
    No. 80 Nerbudda Road,
    Juppulpore C.P,
    India.

    12th June, 1945.
    Dear Mrs. Kilgour,

    This I know will be a painful letter to you, but I am sure you will want to know exactly what happened to your son and how he died.

    By now you should have had official intimation that Major Kilgour died of dysentry while a prisoner of war in Rangoon Jail on the 31st of August, 1942.

    I first met your son at a small town in Sumatra named Tambilahan where he was dressing the wounds of escapees from Singapore and of evacuees who succeeded in reaching Sumatra after their ships had been sunk by Japanese bombers. We met a second time at Padang on the west coast of Sumatra in a Chinese School which was being used as a camp for British evacuees and escapees, there Major Kilgour worked from seven-o-clock in the morning until late every evening dressing wounds and generally attending to the sick of all the British personnel in Padang.

    On the 15th of March ’42 I collected a party of men together in preparation to attempt to sail to India if and when the Japanese entered Padang. The Japanese entered Padang on March the 16th and as my party were moving off your son voiced his desire to join us through a Flt/Lieut. Dykes whom he apparently knew in School or University. If his offer was not accepted he intended to go and hide in the jungle or hills rather than surrender to the Japanese.

    I accepted his offer and he left Padang with us on the afternoon of March the 16th. We marched over some hills down to a fishing village where we obtained a small boat and set sail for an island named Siberoe 100 miles west of Padang on March 17th ’42. Here we rested for 3 days while the boat was made seaworthy by a Dutch-Malay Commissioner, and then sailed north through the Archipeligo and touched civilisation for the last time at a village named Seramboe on the island of Nias.

    We set sail for Ceylon late on the afternoon of April the 5th ’42, but unfortunately we were hit by a squall about 2 hours before dawn on the morning of the 6th and our mast went overboard. The mast and sail were saved mainly through the courageous behaviour of your son. By then he was known as “Doc” to the whole party.

    Next morning we sighted a small island and rowed to it. It was very small and surf bound but we succeeded in beaching the boat. The island was completely uninhabited but contained fresh water, coconut palms and nuts in plenty and possessed huge quantities of hermit crabs; we lived mainly off these supplemented with rice to save our other food while we were on the island. It took 9 days to reshape the mast, cut and reshape the sail as we only had one axe and one needle and ordinary thread.

    We set sail from “Crab Island” on the afternoon of April the 16th ’42 our intention being to sail north past the Nicobar and Andaman islands and land somewhere near Chittagong. This course was decided upon as the season of the South West Monsoon was rapidly approaching and therefore made it almost an impossibility to sail direct to Ceylon.

    We reached Burma on the 15th of May ’42, after a very hazardous and trying voyage. During the voyage we met one very large storm and several small ones, our mast and bowsprit were swept away, one man lost overboard and drowned during the storm. Another man died of malaria and malnutrition two days later. The boat was seriously strained and leaked very badly and when we finally landed the survivors were too weak from short rations for further long sea voyages and also the boat was not in a fit condition to proceed further.

    We actually did sail another 70 miles up the coast and landed just south of Moulmein. Here we remained two days recovering our strength and preparing to march to India overland.

    On May the 19th, ’42, we were betrayed to the Japanese by the village headman and were captured and taken to Moulmein Jail where after five days questioning we joined some other British prisoners. We remained in Moulmein Jail for about a month where our treatment was fairly passable but we were only fed twice a day on rice and bean soup.

    On June the 24th ’42 all British prisoners were moved in the hold of a boat to Rangoon. Here the British Other Ranks joined other British prisoners in their blocks and the officers and Warrant Officers were placed in solitary confinement. This confinement lasted 2 months during which time many indignities were inflicted on the prisoners and no medical aid was given to the sick.

    Both your son and myself contracted dysentry in about the middle of July ’42. His attack was far more virulent than mine. No medical aid was given by the Japanese until about the 20th of August when Major Kilgour was given a few opium pills. But it was too late as the dysentry had obtained too great a hold on his constitution, which was already weakened by the hardships undergone, and he could not rally.

    He was carried out of “Solitary” on the 28th and died on August the 31st ’42. He was buried on the 1st of September in a section of the Rangoon Cemetery set aside by the Japanese for Prisoners of War.

    I cannot express my sorrow at his death, as during our journey we had become fast friends and had planned that I should come to meet you when the war was over. During the long days of our voyage when we all talked of the things nearest our hearts, it was of you that he spoke most, and if ever a son was proud of his mother it was your son.

    It is not possible to tell you how much I and all my party admired him; his courage was of the highest and when things were black and despair rampant it was always he with his puckish sense of humour that rallied us and helped us to go on.

    I regret that I cannot give you all the addresses of the remainder of my party as during our forced march to Pegu by the Japanese I lost them all except one which I will enclose. The remainder will write to me and on receipt of their letters I will forward their addresses if you require them. Flt/Lieut. Dykes will probably have called on you by now and has already told you all this and I hope I am not opening an old wound by this letter.

    With best wishes,

    Yours sincerely,

    (Sgd.) Leonard Dainty
     
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  4. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Just a little more found in a book...

    Col. Kenneth Pirie MacKenzie, RAMC, was the Senior Medical Officer in Rangoon Jail. He was captured on the east side of the Sittang River in Burma in February 1942, after the British had blown the bridge. Sent to Moulmein Jail, then Rangoon Jail, he endured over three years as a POW, finally being released after the forced march in late April 1945.

    His 1954 book, "Operation Rangoon Jail", is an exceptional account of his war experiences, being especially insightful due to his perspective as senior doctor in the prison.

    He briefly wrote about Hugh Kilgour, his RAMC colleague and, of course, one of the Sumatra escapees with Doug Bowler:

    His arrival in Moulmein Jail:

    On the day I arrived, I was escorted over to the Officers' Block. I got an unpleasant shock immediately. I passed cell after cell, each with a British officer in it, behind the bars, and was received in stony silence. There was not a smile or a nod of recognition from anybody, although I knew several of the officers and I saw that they included Major McLeod and Captain Kilgour, an R.A.M.C. officer who had escaped by sea from Singapore with W.O. Dainly [sic] and some others in a purchased boat. I was deposited in a whitewashed cell, completely devoid of any furniture, and the gate clanged behind me.

    Hugh Kilgour's death in Rangoon Jail:

    In addition to McLeod and myself, there were a number of other doctors in the jail. We did not have poor Kilgour with us long, for he died while we were in 'solitary'. Incidentally his death provided the only opportunity for my leaving the confines of the jail during the whole period of my imprisonment. I was hurriedly called out of the Punishment Cells one August afternoon, informed that Captain Kilgour hd died of dysentery (although I do not think that there is much doubt that he died of beri-beri), told that I was to take the funeral service and tranported with the loathsome Coshima to the English cemetery at Rangoon. On this occasion, the Japanese sent a wreath, a practice they soon discontinued, and I read a short service over the body of my colleague.

    I see one other passage mentioning Hugh Kilgour. At Moulmein just before e they were shipped by boat to Rangoon in June 1942, Kilgour resorted to radical surgery on Col. MacKenzie's numerous boils, using a very blunt scalpel. Col. MacKenzie was quite ill with dysentery, as well, and it was a very difficult surgery and recovery for him.

    Regards,

    Matt
     
  5. Were they held in the New Law Courts in Rangoon? If so, there is a good description of conditions in Ian Morrison's book, 'Grandfather Longlegs', chapter 12, pp.144-48.
     
  6. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    We're they held in the New Law Courts in Rangoon? If so, there is a good description of conditions in Ian Morrison's book, 'Grandfather Longlegs', chapter 12, pp.144-48.


    Ahhhhh the Rangoon Ritz. Not too many British Army men held there, especially when being moved in large numbers. American Airmen were held there for their initial interrogations by the Kempai-tai and other individuals who intrigued their captors for various other reasons.

    Great book about an amazing man.
     
  7. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Hi again.

    If you reread my 18 Dec 2012 posting, you will see that I have added a note in red, today, to explain missing photos. Here they are:

    >>>Doug standing at the site of his former home, Rangoon Jail, November 1993
    >>>Two photos of Doug at the Rangoon War Cemetery grave of Dr Hugh Kilgour, with whom he escaped from the fall of Singapore, sailed as far as Moulmein, Burma, endured POW incarceration in Moulmein, and then POW internment in Rangoon Jail. There Dr. Kilgour, much beloved by Doug, succumbed to illness.

    In addition, here is a wonderful photo of Doug in uniform. I can't recall who sent this one to me. Saz, I think it was you, not Penny (Doug's daughter, who died 7 or 8 years ago)?? Such a bright, warm smile!

    Lastly comes a scan of the tattered cover of my copy of "The Soul and the Sea".

    Saz, I have no new info to share at the moment, but I'll always keep you in mind!

    Cheers,

    Matt
     

    Attached Files:

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  8. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Hi Matt,

    Great additional photos to this thread. Did you see my update to the Mingaladon photo this week? We had a post from the family of RC. Fullarton identifying him in the photo and some more input by myself.
    Liberation of POW's/Rangoon Jail Newsreel Footage.
     
    Last edited: Mar 19, 2024
  9. Matt Poole

    Matt Poole Member

    Hi, Steve,

    Yes, I just peeked at that other thread! Good show. I'll comment in that threada this evening, hopefully.

    Cheers,

    matt
     
  10. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

    Great thread - especially the video.
    Thanks to all who contributed.
     
  11. Skoyen89

    Skoyen89 Senior Member

    I recently came across a letter sent by Sgt Gavin to the mother of one of the men who died on the escape. This was Gunner John Leslie Rawson who isn't mentioned in this thread but was known as 'Bosun' and was washed overboard and drowned. It is in Dekho #115.

    The story is such a great one that I set off to find out more about it but then stumbled across this thread, only to find that Matt Poole and Steve (bamboo43) have pulled together large amounts about the voyage and the participants. Thanks for all your contributions - superb work!
     
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  12. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Here is a photograph of Denis Gavin from his book, Quiet Jungle Angry Sea:

    Gavin NZ 1988. copy.jpg
     
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  13. Skoyen89

    Skoyen89 Senior Member

    Hi Steve

    The book just arrived today from Abebooks. A quick skim suggests it is a great read and full of detail.
     
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  14. bamboo43

    bamboo43 Very Senior Member

    Enjoy!
     

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