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Pow taken after fall of Singapore

Started by warthma, August 29, 2018, 01:05:26 PM

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warthma

I am trying to find information about my wife's uncle Private John Knox who was a pow after the fall of Sigapore. He was in the 1st Manchester Regiment.

rafboy

Could this be him.
For some reason I only have a copy of the front of the attached POW Record.
If you can confirm it is him I will see what else I can find for you.
Try contacting TBRC and ask them if they have any information on him, you may be surprised how much they can provide:
http://www.tbrconline.com/

Do you have any photographs of him?

Cliff
Cliff P Son of 3525679 Sgt Arthur Phillips 1st Bn Manchester Regiment and RAPC

warthma

Hello Rafboy and many thanks for your reply. Yes this is definitely the man. We do have his number and I can tell you he did survive the war albeit a broken man who lived with his mother until his death in 1963. We are keen to discover which camps he was in and some idea of his movements and if he was involved in the in the railway building. Sadly no other family members have any knowledge of this. Just one of many, many sad tales. I will look at the TBRC site as I was not aware it existed.
Thanks again and any further help will be much appreciated of course.

sphinx

My brief notes are that he travelled overland into Thailand with 'V' Force and therefore was no doubt involved in the construction of the railway.

If Rafboy can find his papers it will confirm camps.

regards

warthma

Many thanks for that information. We were not aware of him being in V Force so that helps with the picture building. We presumed he would have been involved in the Railway but could never be sure.

rafboy

#5
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
Being in "V" Force he would definitely have been on the "Railway".
I am sure you will get a lot more information on the camps he was in etc from TBRC, I could not find any more on him in the few documents that I have

You may like to contact the Regiment Archive at: https://www.tameside.gov.uk/archives/manchesterregiment they will have some information on him including a couple of documents that you should be able to get copies of.
1) The First Battalion The Manchester Regiment Malaya, Thailand, Burma 1939 ~ 1945. Reference MR1/3/1/18. There will be a small charge for this but it well worth getting.
2) He should be on a page from the "Order of Battle" An extract from 1st Bn Campaign Malaya 1941 - 42 Reference MR1/3/1/15. I only have the page with my father on and he is not on it.
3) He will also show up in the "Nominal Roll" Reference MR1/8/13 This will show his Next of Kin's address and a code which will confirm he went Overland and with "V" Force, the code will look something like CHA.OVL/V and the date V Force left Singapore. Again I only have a page with initial "P" men's names on.

I am going to attach 2 photos of Groups POW's.

Photographs removed as they have now been confirmed as being taken  at Nagoya 3B POW Camp Japan and not Singapore, in addition only one of the few Manchester's in that POW camp has been identified.

Cliff 
Cliff P Son of 3525679 Sgt Arthur Phillips 1st Bn Manchester Regiment and RAPC

warthma

Once again very many thanks. The photos are very interesting. On first look through them we are unsure of whether John Knox is on them but we will continue to look carefully. I will be following up your suggestions regarding the other possible sources. Regards.

rafboy

Cliff P Son of 3525679 Sgt Arthur Phillips 1st Bn Manchester Regiment and RAPC

mack

thanks to very good research by cliff,he has been able to identify where these photos were taken,they were taken at nagoya 3B POW camp japan and they are all the the british POWs who are awaiting their liberation

mack