Page 8 - Haldenby

• Tamuang – Sept 44
• Kanburi – Jan 45
• Nakhon Nayok – June 45
Toosey was the senior Allied officer in the POW camp at Tamarkan that housed the bridge that came to be the subject of the 1957 Oscar-winning film “The Bridge Over River Kwai” in which Alec Guinness played Col. Nicholson, the senior British officer. The film however, outraged former prisoners, who disliked the portrayal of Toosey as a collaborator. Alan was there, and his post-war testimony on his commanding officer was entirely favourable, as will be revealed in due course.
Kwai. Bamboo scaffolding around steel bridge
After the completion of the railway in 1943, the prisoners were progressively dispersed and split up and moved to other labouring camps in Thailand, Formosa and Japan. Alan remained in Thailand and was moved through five more camps under different COs, before rejoining Toosey in January 1945. Throughout this time his parents knew nothing of his whereabouts or even if he had survived the fighting, until they were notified in July 1942, and he was then allowed to send home a postcard in December containing only minimal details which the Japanese obviously dictated.
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