Page 12 - Haldenby

First World War and was something of an OD hero, as from his office as a surveyor at 34 Irongate, he organised sporting events and annual dinners. John J Atkinson (nicknamed “Sarky”) had been Alan’s Latin master at School and also held the rank of Lieutenant in the OTC. Now “Oggers” and “Sarky” had Alan Haldenby to assist them, and the Society began to flourish. One would very much like to know how Alan and Weston got on, as the latter had made his name as an expert on Japanese life and culture in the 1920s and had published several laudatory books on the subject in the 20s and 30s, many of which were favourably reviewed in The Derbeian of July 1932, while Alan was still at school and assiduously training with the OTC!
Alan married Ann Hill, the daughter of the managing director of Midland Drapery, in September 1947 at Mackworth church, and is described as the son of the general manager of Rolls Royce Ltd, Derby. They had four children, Pat, Ruth, Mark and Michael. The latter attended Derby School at Moorway Lane from 1970 to 1976, and Pat went to Homelands School.
In 1984 Alan and his wife Ann went on holiday to the Far East and their tour included a visit to the River Kwai. He’d wanted to return for many years, saying what a beautiful country it was, and as Pat recorded, it became a tourist area and her father noted how attentive and grateful all the guides were when they knew he was a former prisoner.
In October 1997 the BBC Timewatch series broadcast a programme reopening the long running controversy about the River Kwai and its calumny of Col Philip Toosey, alleging through the fictional character of Col Nicholson, played by Alec Guinness, that Toosey had actively collaborated with the Japanese in the building of in fact two railway bridges – one of iron and concrete and the other of wood – in order to maintain morale and give the men something to do and to show they could do it better than the Japanese. Just days before the programme was aired, the Daily Mail published an article exonerating Toosey and including a lengthy interview with his son Patrick It also contained eulogies by many of those men who had served with him.
“He really put his life on the line by arguing with the Japanese” says Alan Haldenby, now 81, who served under Toosey in the POW camp and now lives in Derby. “He talked about the importance of obeying strict rules and kept morale high. He insisted we keep ourselves in order and by ensuring that we were as hygienic as possible, prevented the spread of disease. Although he was not the sort of man I would have as a friend – he was very dogmatic and perhaps acted too much like an officer all the time – he was a real hero.”
Patrick wrote to Alan shortly after the film was screened and expressed his gratitude for his participation in setting the record straight. He wrote that the producer (Paul Elston) “from a very different generation” – he was 29 – “was thrilled by the general response to the programme. The viewing audience was the highest ever for a
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