POW World War 2 - Burma/Thailand
Born Enlisted
Resided
Died
Name BARBER, ARTHUR
Rank Drummer
Regiment/Service Manchester Regiment
Unit Text 1st Bn.
Date of Death 28/05/1943
Service No 3523637
Grave/Memorial Reference B6. F. 6.
Cemetery THANBYUZAYAT WAR CEMETERY
The Promises
Early in April 1943 orders were issued to prepare 7000 Prisoners of War for a move by train. The order stated that -
(a) The reason for the move was that the food situation in Singapore was difficult and it would be far better in the new place.
(b) This was NOT a working party.
(c) As there were not 7000 fit men in Changi, 30% of the party were to be unfit men, unfit to march or work. The unfit would have a better chance of recovery with good food and in a pleasant hilly place with facilities for recreation.
(d) There would be no marching except for short distances from train to a nearby camp, and transport would be provided for baggage and men unfit to march.
(e) Bands were to be taken.
(f) All tools and cooking gear and an engine and gear for electric light were to be taken.
(g) Gramophones, blankets and clothing and mosquito nets would be issued at the new camp.
(h) A good canteen would be available in each camp after three weeks. Canteen supplies for the first three weeks were to be bought with the prisoners' money before they left Changi.
(i) The party would include a medical party of about 350 with equipment for a central hospital of 400 patients, and medical supplies for three months.
On Arthur's POW card .... the Japanese language on the card tells us that Arthur was transfered from Singapore to Thailand/Burma on 25th April 1943, this fits in with him going with "F" Force. He died in Camp No 4 Sub Branch No 2 at 09:45 on 28th May 1943. Camp No 4 was Songkurai which had two POW camps there. Songkurai was also known as Songkuri and Son Krai, there was a lot of confusion over camp names due to individuals understanding of the Japanese pronunciation of the camp names.
( You will see on the back of the POW card the dates 18.4.25, this is 25th April 1943 and 18.5.28 this is 28th May 1943. The Japanese based events from the date of the Emperor's Enthronement in this case Hirohito also known as Showa )
You won't find Sonkrai/Songkurai on any maps - it does not exist anymore. Its history is buried and overgrown in the jungles of Northern Thailand, a place to be forgotten, except by those who lived through its horrors, for they will never forget.
The following poem was written by Colonel Wild when in a POW Camp at Sonkurai, Northern Thailand. An epidemic of cholera had broken out and hundreds of POWs died, a large number being British but an even larger number were local coolies who, it is said, were the first to contract the disease.
At Sonkurai
At Sonkurai where hope lay drowned
Beneath the bridge the earth is browned
With mould and monsoon vapours veil
The jungle and the creepers trail
Like snakes inert their coils unwound
And there our rear-guard kept their ground
Eight comrades laid beneath each mound
A thousand dead without avail
At Sonkurai
Freed from the captive's weary round
Homeless, a lasting home they found
Let not our faith their courage fail
'Til with the dawn the stars turn pale
And, silent long, our bugles sound
At Sonkurai
More prisoners of war died at Sonkrai than any other camp on the infamous River Kwai Railway - "F" Force was a working party of prisoners of war of the Japanese. It consisted of 7,000 men, of which 3,662 were Australians, the rest were British. The purpose of this working party was to assist in the construction of the Burma/Thailand Railway linking Bangkok with Rangoon.
The force was formed at Changi and the first of thirteen trains left Singapore on April 18, 1943. Each train contained approximately 600 men crowded into rice trucks, 28 - 30 men to each truck. The last train departed on April 26, 1943. Each train took five days to make the journey, Singapore to Bam Pong, Thailand.
After arrival at Bam Pong - after five days spent in steel rice trucks ( 28 - 30 to a truck ) - food and water were scarce throughout and none were available during the last 24 hours of the journey .... the men - that same night - were put on the first stage of a march, which totalled 304 kilometres, all by night marches - with only five overnight rest halts against 15 nights marching - ( after each night, even the sleep of exhaustion was difficult the following day - in the tropical sun and without shelter and not always shade ) - to various camps north .
These camps were located in the centre of the cholera belt - consequently three thousand died from slave labour, disease, starvation and exposure to the never-ending monsoon rain.
At Sonkrai where conditions were worst ........ of the 1600 men who were originally sent to Sonkrai camp - by May 1943 - 1200 were already dead and 200 more were still in hospital, of whom many were not expected to recover.
In mid November 1943 "F" Force was transferred south by train, to Kan Buri Hospital Camp, about 80 km from Bangkok.
Surviving members of "F" Force arrived back in Changi on 17/12/1943.
BARBER, Drummer, ARTHUR, 3523637. 1st Bn. Manchester Regiment.
28th May 1943. Age 31. B6. F. 6.
The graves of those who died during the construction and maintenance of the Burma-Siam railway (except for the Americans, whose remains were repatriated) were transferred from camp burial grounds and isolated sites along the railway into three cemeteries at Chungkai and Kanchanaburi in Thailand and Thanbyuzayat in Myanmar.
Thanbyuzayat became a prisoner of war administration headquarters and base camp in September 1942 and in January 1943 a base hospital was organised for the sick. The camp was close to a railway marshalling yard and workshops, and heavy casualties were sustained among the prisoners during Allied bombing raids in March and June 1943. The camp was then evacuated and the prisoners, including the sick, were marched to camps further along the line where camp hospitals were set up. For some time, however, Thanbyuzayat continued to be used as a reception centre for the groups of prisoners arriving at frequent intervals to reinforce the parties working on the line up to the Burma-Siam border. Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery was created by the Army Graves Service who transferred to it all graves along the northern section of the railway, between Moulmein and Nieke.
http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/Cemeteries/Thanbyuzayat_War_Cemetery/
Arthur Barber died at 09:45 on 28th May 1943 ...... this is what was happening ...... devastating isn't it ?
THE CHOLERA SCOURGE
A fresh wave of Cholera broke out in the camp on 26 May and there were 28 admissions on that day. The doctors appealed to everyone to cooperate in their plan for hygiene, and sanitation to try and stop the spread of the disease, as this was all we had to combat it with, there being no other normal medical means at their disposal. During the night of 26 May and the next day 27 May, ten more deaths occurred from Cholera, now bringing the total to twenty in just on ten days. The position was now so serious that Major Hunt, the Medical Officer went to the Jap Commander, Lieutenant Fukuda and put a very straight and hard proposal to him on the facts and did a wonderful job by finally getting the work parties cancelled for tomorrow. Following this the next day all available men were put on camp hygiene and sanitation work, new latrines were dug and the old ones filled and burnt off. The results of the Cholera glass rod tests showed 53 carriers suspects out of 500 so there was still a long and ghastly road ahead of us before we were out of the mire. On 1 June I lost the first member of my own “I” section in the whole of the war when he died of Cholera that day. There were fourteen deaths for the day and this brought the total in the camp to 67.
On 2 June, work was commenced again on the railway and we sent out 450 men, due to the larger number of sick men to the fit ones, we re-organized the camp strength into two battalions, No.1. of fit men about 800 strong and No.2. the Hospital Camp of 1100 of which 950 were sick and patients. Malaria had, by this time, started to get a hold and seriously affected the work force. We learnt at this time from Colonel Banno (Japanese Commander) that the position at the English Camp forward of us was also serious and there had already been 100 deaths there. By 7 June we had dropped our work force to 230 on the railway after having sent out 1300 men on 21 May, so that in just over a fortnight we had about 75% of the force sick and unfit for work; then we reached the all time low of only being able to supply 80 men for road work on 11 June.
http://www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/99.html
Arthurs wife Frances died in 1988 - never knowing the fate of her husband.
All she ever received was notification in 1943 or 1944 that Arthur was a prisoner of the Japanese. For many years after the war she attended numerous meetings and gatherings in the Manchester area in a forlorn attempt to learn something of her husband but got nowhere. Why did she hear nothing from the war department ?
Frances lived in the house noted in Arthurs statement of service until 1969/70 - so there was no excuse that they could not find her !
Eventually she gave up her quest and re-married in 1955.
In 1998 Arthur's nephew "found" him and began researching him, the Manchester Regiment Museum very kindly put him in touch with Mr Arthur Lane who actually served with his uncle and who gave him some superb information.
The icing on the cake came courtesy of the British Embassy in Burma who laid a poppy wreath on Arthurs grave.
The final act was to ask the War Graves Commission if they had any next of kin information on Arthur, they said "no" ..... because the army had not provided them with any, but he was told that Arthur was originally buried in 32/34, block A, Sonkrai cemetery and was re-interred in Thanbyuzayat cemetery in December 1945.
At this point Arthur's nephew ended the research and put Frances' lack of information down to a tragic clerical error.
Then recently he vaguely remembered Arthur Lane saying something about "a cover up" of Far East P.O.W. deaths, so he revisited the Thanbyuzayat cemetery register and from 3530481 Geoffrey Amos Allison to 3525986 Harold Townley found 75 1st Battalion Manchester regiment men who all (but 2) died in 1943 with no next of kin details.
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Check the Photo Gallery .....
A fresh wave of Cholera broke out in the camp on 26 May and there were 28 admissions on that day. The doctors appealed to everyone to cooperate in their plan for hygiene, and sanitation to try and stop the spread of the disease, as this was all we had to combat it with, there being no other normal medical means at their disposal. During the night of 26 May and the next day 27 May, ten more deaths occurred from Cholera, now bringing the total to twenty in just on ten days. The position was now so serious that Major Hunt, the Medical Officer went to the Jap Commander, Lieutenant Fukuda and put a very straight and hard proposal to him on the facts and did a wonderful job by finally getting the work parties cancelled for tomorrow. Following this the next day all available men were put on camp hygiene and sanitation work, new latrines were dug and the old ones filled and burnt off. The results of the Cholera glass rod tests showed 53 carriers suspects out of 500 so there was still a long and ghastly road ahead of us before we were out of the mire. On 1 June I lost the first member of my own “I” section in the whole of the war when he died of Cholera that day. There were fourteen deaths for the day and this brought the total in the camp to 67.
On 2 June, work was commenced again on the railway and we sent out 450 men, due to the larger number of sick men to the fit ones, we re-organized the camp strength into two battalions, No.1. of fit men about 800 strong and No.2. the Hospital Camp of 1100 of which 950 were sick and patients. Malaria had, by this time, started to get a hold and seriously affected the work force. We learnt at this time from Colonel Banno (Japanese Commander) that the position at the English Camp forward of us was also serious and there had already been 100 deaths there. By 7 June we had dropped our work force to 230 on the railway after having sent out 1300 men on 21 May, so that in just over a fortnight we had about 75% of the force sick and unfit for work; then we reached the all time low of only being able to supply 80 men for road work on 11 June.
http://www.pows-of-japan.net/articles/99.html
Arthurs wife Frances died in 1988 - never knowing the fate of her husband.
All she ever received was notification in 1943 or 1944 that Arthur was a prisoner of the Japanese. For many years after the war she attended numerous meetings and gatherings in the Manchester area in a forlorn attempt to learn something of her husband but got nowhere. Why did she hear nothing from the war department ?
Frances lived in the house noted in Arthurs statement of service until 1969/70 - so there was no excuse that they could not find her !
Eventually she gave up her quest and re-married in 1955.
In 1998 Arthur's nephew "found" him and began researching him, the Manchester Regiment Museum very kindly put him in touch with Mr Arthur Lane who actually served with his uncle and who gave him some superb information.
The icing on the cake came courtesy of the British Embassy in Burma who laid a poppy wreath on Arthurs grave.
The final act was to ask the War Graves Commission if they had any next of kin information on Arthur, they said "no" ..... because the army had not provided them with any, but he was told that Arthur was originally buried in 32/34, block A, Sonkrai cemetery and was re-interred in Thanbyuzayat cemetery in December 1945.
At this point Arthur's nephew ended the research and put Frances' lack of information down to a tragic clerical error.
Then recently he vaguely remembered Arthur Lane saying something about "a cover up" of Far East P.O.W. deaths, so he revisited the Thanbyuzayat cemetery register and from 3530481 Geoffrey Amos Allison to 3525986 Harold Townley found 75 1st Battalion Manchester regiment men who all (but 2) died in 1943 with no next of kin details.
Please use back button on your browser
Check the Photo Gallery .....