This took a little longer for me to get posted than I intended, apologies for the delay.
In addition to this I have scanned and OCR'd a copy of his personal account of the official escape party.
If any of you would like a copy of it then you may download it from this link.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ayOekaw6uKYrz7OjOYAvUycfSc8MbFti
Lt. Arthur Hesford
Born on October 28th, 1918 in Manchester.
His father, also Arthur Hesford, fought in WWI in the Manchester Regiment and was wounded at Gallipoli and again at The Somme.
He grew up in Salford where his father owned a small shop, it was apparently one of the first places in their neighbourhood to get a telephone installed and when neighbours traveled away they would ring the shop just to have the experience of talking on the phone.
He had a younger brother, Eric (Died due to complications from exposure during WW2), and a younger sister Doris (still kicking, just turned 97).
He attended William Hulme grammar school from September 1930, was awarded the School Certificate in July 1934 and the Higher School Certificate in July 1936.
During this time he also became an excellent competitive swimmer, having the fastest time for breaststroke in Northern England.
He was made an offer to swim for Great Britain at the 1936 Olympics but he turned it down in favour of continuing his education.
He had decided to become an accountant and agreed to instead swim in the 1940 Olympics, which of course never took place.
In October 1936 he was articled to a Mr D. Battersby, F.C.A of Manchester.
He spent half his time working and the other half of his time studying to take his examinations.
This was apparently not very productive and he felt his education suffered, but in May 1939 he wrote the Intermediate Examination for the ICAE (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England) anyways apparently to get a feel for the exam.
To his surprise (but apparently not to the surprise of his father) he not only passed the exam but was awarded a prize due to his excellent result.
Then with the Military Training Act 1939 having passed (also in May 1939) he decided to get his conscription over with as soon as possible in order to continue his education as an accountant uninterrupted.
As such he joined the British Army as a Private in July 1939, requesting to be place in the Manchester Regiment as that was where his father had served.
After war broke out in September he underwent was selected for officer training and was shipped to southern England.
He apparently had initial difficulty fitting in with the other officer candidates who tended to be from wealthier social classes and performed poorly, with his instructors unsure of his ability.
Happily this turned around at some point during the training and his instructors later wrote that they had been completely mistaken and now felt he had the potential to be an excellent officer.
He was commissioned back into the Manchesters in March 1940.
One of his first assignments as an officer was to take a motorcycle and go from town to town in northwestern England to talk to the various village councils about the preparations they were making in case the Germans were to mount an invasion.
During the early parts of the assignment when he arrived in a town he would go to the town hall or the local police station in an attempt to make contact with the town's officials.
Invariably he ended up being directed to find them in the local pub, so from then on he skipped the official buildings and just went straight to each towns pub.
This was an assignment he remembered fondly as each day consisted of a short motorcycle ride, a few hours work at the next town, and then a relaxing evening in the pub.
In 1941 he was was shipped to Singapore, arriving in October, to join 1st Battalion.
He was assigned to a company for a short time and then appointed by Colonel Holmes to be the battalion Intelligence Officer, as well as I believe the Sports/Recreation Officer.
Very early in the morning on 14 Feb 1941 he departed Singapore aboard the HMS Dragonfly as 2IC of 1st Battalion's official escape party headed for Australia, along with the HMS Grasshopper.
Unfortunately it was a short trip as later that day the ships were attacked by Japanese aircraft.
The Dragonfly was hit badly in the first pass and sunk in ~5 minutes. The captain gave the order to abandon ship, and (in what I believe were likely his last words) Lt Quinn told my grandfather "You go first Arthur."
In the water and knowing that he was a strong swimmer, he gave his life jacket to another man (a sailor on the Dragonfly, also named Arthur) and began to swim towards the Grasshopper which had been beached at an island a few miles away after also being hit.
It was a very hard swim and after about three hours he nearly gave up and sank into the sea.
In his personal account he says 'I thought to myself, "you are not finished yet, you are quitting too soon"' and in his later years he remarked to me that he had also thought about how disappointed his parents would be if they would have ever learned he had given up and drowned.
After swimming for ~5 hours total he managed to reach the Grasshopper where he held on to the anchor chain for ~20 minutes of rest before going ashore to meet with its crew, he was the first survivor of the Dragonfly to make it to land.
He had stripped naked during the swim in order to make it easier and when he was spotted by crewmen from the Grasshopper they stopped him from going any further until they'd found him some pants.
It turned out that just a little bit farther around copse of trees were several female nurses caring for the wounded and the sailors didn't want them startled by his nudity.
A naval Lieutenant (from the Grasshopper I believe) assumed command and over the next few days the survivors of both ships regrouped and moved to the larger island of Singkep.
There an evacuation was also underway, and the officer in charge of it asked for volunteers to stay behind for a few days to watch over some of the wounded until a medical group arrived to evacuate them.
He and the other 3 surviving Manchesters discussed it decided to volunteer, acting as medical orderlies for ~1 week.
Being delayed was however somewhat fortunate as a ship that had evacuated the town on Singkep was sunk with only two survivors.
They were then moved to Sumatra and evacuated up the Indrageri River by boat and then truck to Padang, arriving on 14 March 1941, one month after the sinking of the Dragonfly.
Three days later on 17 March 1941 the Japanese arrived in Padang and they were captured. The three surviving Manchester NCOs were sent to northern Sumatra with a large group of prisoners in ~2 weeks.
He was held prisoner in Padang for ~3 months before being moved to Medan in north Sumatra where he was imprisoned for the next several years.
While in Medan he was appointed Company Commander of the British troops by Major Campbell, the senior British officer.
In June 1944 the Japanese decided to move all POWs off of Sumatra and on 26 June 1944 he was put on a ship (the Harugiku Maru, previously known as the SS Van Waerwijck) to be transported back to Singapore.
At ~10 am the convoy the ship was in was spotted by the HMS Truculent and, not knowing there were POWs aboard, at 1112 hrs the Truculent fired 4 torpedoes at the Van Waerwijck two of which struck.
When he first torpedo hit he was tossed about and struck his head badly. He woke up two hours later in the water on board a piece of wreckage with some other survivors.
It was his second, and happily final, time being sunk, the Van Waerwijck having gone down in ~15 minutes.
The survivors were retrieved by the Japanese spent ~1 week in Singapore where he was able to get into contact with Colonel Holmes and make a report.
They were then transported back to Sumatra to Pakan Bahru to work on the Sumatra railway where they spent another year in harsh captivity.
There are two events he related to me from his time in captivity for which I do not know the time or place.
At some point he had to have a root canal without any anesthetization. I think this likely happened in Medan.
Later, I expect in Pakan Bahru when conditions were especially harsh, a man failed to show up for the camp roll call. The Japanese were very upset, thinking he had attempted to escape, and they other POWs were made to search for him.
The missing man was eventually found, he had gone to the latrines, died during his time there, and fallen down into them. The other prisoners were made to retrieve the body.
In August 1945, ~1 week after the Japanese surrender, an Allied officer came out of the jungle to the camp bearing a white flag.
This officer conferred with the commandant and the two of them agreed the war was over and that the prisoners were to be released.
Then ~3 weeks after the end of the way he was sent from Sumatra to Singapore, and then back by ship to Liverpool.
On the way back to England the ship stopped in South Africa and he found the country so beautiful that he considered emigrating there after the war.
Some time after arriving back in England he got into touch with Cpl R. Taylor, the other only survivor from the escape party.
Cpl Taylor was still in poor health, having spent months in the hospital as a result of his captivity.
My grandfather also suffered ill effects from his time as a POW, both physically and mentally.
When he was captured he was a fit young man weighing ~140-150 lbs, upon his release he was close to 100 lbs, and although I don't believe he suffered too greatly from PTSD his behaviours had changed in some ways.
An example of this is that for the remainder of his life he would refuse to queue in lines, for example at the bank or post office. They reminded him of his time in the camps, forced to line up for roll calls several times a day by the Japanese.
Instead he would find himself a seat somewhere, wait until the line had cleared up, and then conduct whatever business he was there for.
In February 1946 he was demobilized at the rank of Lieutenant and in March 1946 became employed as the Senior Audit Clerk at Harvey, Longrigg & Crickett, Chartered Accountants, in Manchester.
He continued with his education and in May 1947 passed his Final Examination for the ICAE, 8 years after after passing the Intermediate Exam.
In October 1947 he moved to London and worked at the London office of Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. as Senior Audit Clerk.
Colonel Holmes wrote him a letter of reference.
During this time he became acquainted with a woman named Mary Jacqueline Berry.
Mary was the pen pal of his sister Doris, and she had come to England at the end of war to marry an RAF pilot who she had met while he was training in Canada.
The engagement had fallen apart largely due to disapproval of her from his family (social class issues).
Mary was then temporarily staying with Doris until she could return to Canada.
By late 1947 he had decided to emigrate and after consideration chose Canada as his destination.
South Africa was the other possible destination but disliked the social environment (which led in 1948 to the start of Apartheid, a policy he strongly disagreed with).
Mary had since returned to Canada (likely another large factor in his decision) with her ex-fiance's family paying for the journey.
The family was only willing to get her back to the country however, and not to pay her way back to British Columbia, so she settled for a while in Ontario.
My grandfather arrived in Canada on 22 February 1948, and on 8 March 1948 became employed as Second in Charge to the Principal with MacDonald and Healey, Chartered Accountants, in Windsor Ontario.
However his employment there was short lived as he resigned on 20 April 1948 in order to move to British Columbia with Mary.
They then married on 24 April 1948, and arrived in New Westminster, BC on 5 May 1948.
He reliquished his commission in the British Army on 9 November 1948.
Over the course of the next few years they had three children, Patricia (Patty), Jacqueline (Jackie), and my father Arthur John (AJ).
In 1960 the family relocated back to England for a period of 3 years before returning to North Vancouver, BC in 1963.
My grandfather continued his career as an accountant and was a partner in an accounting firm in Vancouver (Hesford & Fraser).
He was a strong proponent of cricket and a life member of the Canadian Cricket Association.
Mary died suddenly in July 1986 and he never remarried.
After retiring in 1992 he moved to Victoria, BC where his daughter Patty had settled (and continues to live).
He bought a house in the Gordon Head neighbourhood, which after deciding to downsize he sold to AJ, and moved into an apartment in the Fernwood neighbourhood nearly across the street from Patty's house.
I lived with him in this apartment for about a year when I moved back to Victoria in 2009, and then I got a different apartment in the same building.
He died peacefully in his sleep on the morning on the 27 October 2010.
