My uncle was a POW on the River Kwai for most of WWII and survived physically. He was one of a large group of Allied soldiers who were force marched up through the jungles of Thailand to repair bridges and roads for them in case they had to make a quick retreat in the event of an Allied invasion. I have a photo of his which was taken just before he left for Singapore but I can't figure out how to put it up on this site.
If you're still around and still interested in showing it (I would dearly love to see it - I love more personal history behind photos, not just nameless faces) you can use a simple computer scanner, usually available at a public library if you don't have one, to scan it into a computer, and then upload it to a site like TinyPic.com. Alternatively, if you have a cell phone with a good camera, like the iPhone, you can take a picture of it, email it to yourself, and again upload it to a site like TinyPic.com. If you have any further accounts of what happened to him, it would be really neat to know about it. As I said, history without names is just water under a bridge. Once you can connect to the past on a level that resonates, it becomes history again.
You can also click the 'Upload a File' button and load the photo directly here. I'd be interested in seeing it too.
William Barter Japanese POW WWII. Taken prisoner in Singapore where he was assigned to clean Japanese weapons. 'While unloading bombs and detonators from trains at Tamuang on the Burmah railway I threw a lot away into the jungle and in Singapore I filed down the firing pins of the Jap's rifles while cleaning them'. Unfortunately he was then included in a party of some 600 men who were then sent on a very long march/walk of some hundreds of kilometres over the next 3 or 4 months, repairing roads etc for the Japanese in preparation for the defence/retreat for their troops upon the anticipated invasion by the Allies here in Thailand.
That - that's the kind of personal history I love! Filing the firing pins alone could have put him at the greatest of personal peril and tortures, and he probably knew it too. It's the heroes who fight quietly who often strike the hardest. Seeing the face, knowing the name, is one thing. But you generally don't get those little stories without being related to the person. Thank you very much for sharing!
William Barter was born in one of the poorest areas of Dublin City. In 1916 his own father was shot dead by a British Soldier in the streets of Dublin as he was heading home after a days work. William was encouraged by his mother and my father to join the British Army at the outbreak of WWII. Having completed 6 months of basic training his unit was shipped out to Singapore. He was part of a Gunner crew, two of whom tried to escape from the Japanese in Singapore but who were later captured. According to a statement by William Barter their commanding officer was forced to watch their execution.
