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remained adamant that Toosey (Col. Nicholson in the 1957 film played by Alec Guinness) was a travesty of the truth, but more of this later. From Tamarkan and its famous bridge, he was then moved to a variety of nine or more camps under various British COs, until returning to Col. Toosey’s command at Nakom Nyok camp from which they were both eventually liberated in 1945.
Writing on 30th August 1945 “from 70 miles N.E. of Bangkok, Thailand” Alan sent his first and last proper letter to his family in more than three and a half years. He wrote:
“The end came very quickly for us and although we were getting odd items of news from various sources, it came as a surprise. We now have a wireless properly installed (we’ve had one all the time although the Japs didn’t know about it – but that’s another story!) and are getting regular news bulletins. I’m very fit indeed and pass my mornings sawing and chopping up wood for our cookhouse to keep in trim! You’ve no doubt heard something of our life during the past three and a half years – anyway I can’t start to tell you now! The following are all fit and well – Geoffrey Aspdin, Jack Bennett, John Walker, Col. Lilly and most of the Foresters officers.
I haven’t forgotten all my law but I’m looking forward immediately to getting home, seeing you all, and starting on a decent job of work again without the Japanese directing operations!”
It wasn’t until the 7th September that the Derby Evening Telegraph was able to publish the names of well-known local Territorial officers in the Sherwood Foresters that Alan had mentioned and obviously knew and who were still awaiting final liberation. They included the two he’d mentioned in the above letter: Captain G S Aspdin of Belper Road, and Lt. John Walker of Kedleston Road.
Homecoming 1945
Alan returned home on the Empire Pride, docking at Liverpool on the 13th October. One can only speculate that he must have remembered being there in 1932 when still a schoolboy, never imagining the horrors that he had just endured as a man some ten years later.
The return of the Far Eastern prisoners was recorded by the Derby Telegraph and a somewhat haggard looking photo of Alan appeared on 15th October 1945. Being the first to arrive at the station, he was immediately interviewed on arrival, and told the reporter that he was “feeling fit after a comfortable trip home.” He added that the last year in the prison camp was “not too bad” but that 1943 – when he was employed on the Thailand railway – was very hard indeed. “I was lucky and didn’t get bashed about much, but some of the chaps had a frightful time.”
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