ARTHUR NEVER SLEEPS
10th November 96
Yesterday I returned from Tebong in Malaysia where I have been searching for the graves of service men killed there during the second world war. Although I have received no assistance from the ministry of defence, I did in fact receive assistance from Lt Commander R J Pharoah and from Hamdan Ahammu, the general manager of KTM Malaysian railways. who instructed one of his deputies Mr Meniam to remain with me and provide all assistance possible.
Next year I will be researching to locate the graves of fifty seven men from the Destroyer Thanet who were taken prisoner by the Japanese and then executed by machine gun fire on the beaches of Endau Malaya on 28th January 1942
THIS IS JUST ONE OF THE PROJECTS WHICH ARTHUR UNDERTOOK ON BEHALF OF RELATIVES, WHOSE SONS AND HUSBANDS WERE KILLED DURING THE BATTLE FOR MALAY IN 1942
On the 6th January 1942, the British, Indian and Australian forces in Malaya were holding a defensive position at a small village named Slim River. To the rear of the defenses the river Slim itself was in full flood.
On the 7th January at dawn, the Japanese made a full frontal attack using aircraft and tanks. The defenders had neither of these. By the afternoon the Japanese had started to break through and orders were given to retreat, unfortunately the bridge, which would lead them to comparative safety, had already been blown, as had been the case all the way down the peninsula.
More than 7,000 men and their equipment were on the wrong side of the river, so the order was given to break and retreat. More than 3,000 Indians were killed, made prisoner or deserted, the remaining British and Australians scattered. Some tried to swim the swollen river, many of them did not make the far side. The others went into the jungle, of these, three thousand, were able to get across and rejoin their units, however some were lost for days.
A party of Artillerymen under the command of Lt Colonel Outran headed west and by the evening of the 8th January managed to climb on board a maverick train heading south.
On the morning of the 10th January the train having managed to elude Japanese aircraft, stopped to take on water. At ten o'clock that morning four Japanese light bombers strafed the train killing at least fourteen men.
Colonel Outran arranged for the men to be buried where they lay, afterwards making his way down to Singapore, where he made his report.
On the 15th February, Colonel Outran was taken prisoner at the capitulation of Singapore.
On his release from prison camp and his return home, his first priority was to send letters to the parents of the men he had known, offering his condolences. The colonel died several years ago, not knowing that the men he had buried that day were still listed as having no known grave (I have attached a transcript of his letter to the next of kin)
In 1993, I received a letter from the sister of one of the men who had been reported as missing no known grave, asking me if I would attempt to find out what had happened to her brother and if possible find his grave.
After some enquiries and searching I found an eighty year old Malay lady, who lived in the area where the graves are, who watched as the men were being buried? She pointed out to us the rough area where the men had been buried. I then contacted a lady living in Scotland a Mrs. A McCormick who is skilled in the art of Dowsing and asked her to visit Malaysia and to go to the area and use her skills, the result being that she located at least nine graves, some single others multiple.
I have tried for some months to have the Ministry of Defense to provide the necessary
money to have the remains of these men exhumed and re-
For nine months the Ministry have refused to even recognize the fact that I have located the graves and have insisted that it is government policy to leave any grave undisturbed.
Finally last week, they relented slightly and have now offered to provide a space in a military cemetery plus the removal of the remains and the supply of a headstone, but still no offer to pay for the exhumation.
Last week on Granada television a feature was shown in which I have asked people to purchase any of my books so that the total profit could go toward the cost of the work involved, I require some good hearted persons to make a donation to allow me to complete the job. Or any newspaper to back me. I estimate the total cost to be in the region of £5000.
August 15th will be the fiftieth anniversary of the ending of the war; I would consider this to be a fitting tribute to the 26,000 others the men and women who have no known grave
At the beginning of May, the government spent a considerable amount to commemorate VE day, yet they cannot spare the sum I have asked for to complete this project. I pledge that any surplus to moneys will be handed over to one of the service charities.
TRANSCRIPT OF COLONEL OWTRAMS
LETTER TO ONE OF THE NEXT OF KIN.
November 24th 1945
Dear Mr Mitchell
I am sorry to say that the war office official notification about your son is correct, and may I express my deep sympathy with you and Mrs Mitchell.
I remember your son arranging a concert at Lark hill in 1941, in fact I went and sang at one which he arranged as it happens. I was involved in the incident in which he was killed.
We were traveling by train, when two four Jap bombers came over. Everyone ran out
of the train, which was stationary, but I am sorry to say 9 of the regiment were
killed your son among them-
There was no chaplain with us so I did the best we could for all of them and dug
graves where they were killed. I then read a passage from "Revelations Ch 21. V
1-
But what we did we done with the utmost reverence.
He is buried near the railway at Tebong station, about 30 miles north of Gemas.
I hope this knowledge may be a little comfort to you both and perhaps you would like me to come & see you one day. But I am afraid I should not be able to manage it for a fortnight or so I am frightfully busy with regimental matters & business affairs at the moment.
Please let me know if it would please you & your wife to see me or if you feel it would make it harder for you
Yrs very Sincerely
and signed H C Owtram Lt Col
Working on the instructions of Mrs McCormick (The Dowser who had predicted where the graves were) I employed two local labourers to commence digging. Unfortunately the ground was covered with a layer of granite chippings and after three hours they had just managed to remove a portion of grass and weeds, plus an inch of topsoil. Mrs McCormick rechecked with her dowsing rods and was still confident that we were digging in the right place. After a few more hours it was obvious that the men we were using, were in fact using us to make money and I paid them off (The rate had cost me 120 Malaysian Rg which is about £40.00.)
The following day I took a hand at digging and was assisted by local men, but the ground was far too heavy and by mid afternoon on the advice of Mr Meniam, went in search of a JCB.
On the last day we finally located a JCB and driver who would work a full eight hour day for 200 Rg about £60. The first two hours were spent manoeuvering the machine into position, during which the driver managed to damage one wheel and puncture the fuel line to the compressor section. Work eventually commenced on the spot indicated by the dowser. A long trench about four feet wide and three to four foot deep was dug for about twenty feet, which within seconds became full of water. After a further hour, the driver realised that the puncture to the compressor was more serious than at first thought, so further digging was suspended.
We now know that the remains of these men were taken to Taiping cemetery Malaya and are listed as known only unto God.
Given access to the information held by the war graves commission and the Public records office, plus help from men still living today who were also invloved, I am sure that they could be identified.
At this point I was approached by a local man whose family own the farm land at the side of the station. He spoke good English and went on to explain that we were in fact digging in the wrong place. Apparently his father was a railway employee and at sixteen years of age, he was allowed to work with his father on the railway. First he explained that in 1942 when the bombing raid had taken place, there was only a single railway line.
One or two of the men who had been killed had been buried about ten to twelve foot
away from the line, others had been buried between the boundary of the railway property
and the rubber plantation. Today however there are two main lines and one loop line.
The second line being added after the war and the loop line just a few years ago.
he also indicated that where the men had been buried at the side of the line, the
Japanese had imported tons of granite ballast, so the recovery of the remains from
this spot would require the Malaysian railway authorities to allow the removal of
the loop line and the secondary main line, and even then it would require a search
along approximately thirty to forty foot of track. This man was taken by the Japanese
to work on the Burma -
I was then directed to a lady of some eighty years, who also remembered the bombing raid, so I arranged for a car to collect her so that she could take me to the exact spot where she has claimed that some of the men were buried. Through an interpreter she explained that the train consisted of about fifteen assorted carriages and wagons, some of which contained artillery pieces. She remembered the bombing which took place around ten o'clock. the train was taking on water and the soldiers were having a drink and a meal of sorts as she passed on her way home from a local shop. After the raid she became frightened and joined others of the village and went over to the station. The train had been hit twice, but not the engine. The driver and two soldiers uncoupled the engine and set off to Gemas apparently to get help (Gemas at this time was the only station with a telephone) She and others wanted to assist the soldiers, but whenever they approached, the soldiers pointed guns at them and told them to clear off. It was several hours later that army trucks arrived carrying Gurkha and Indian soldiers. "They took many men away, possibly to hospital" she said. The day after the raid and after the soldiers had gone, the villagers went down to where several had been buried in a shallow grave at the side of the rubber plantation.
This was a natural drain which ran to a large pond before travelling on to meet a large stream. Some of the villagers went into the jungle, because they had been told that some of the soldiers had gone that way. She could not say how many but thought that two or three soldiers were buried by the villagers. On the twelfth January, the Japanese came down from the north and would not allow anyone to go near the station or the train lines. She remembers the Japanese removing the debris from the line and heaving it onto the side of the track where the first soldiers were buried. The next she could remember was some time in 1950, when a British officer and some men she thought were Gurkhas, suddenly appeared and started to dig on the far side of the track, they recovered the remains of a high officer probably a colonel she claimed. I asked her if she knew when the extra line was built, but she could not remember. She suggested that I go to the police station.
At the police station I was assisted by at least three young police men, one of them stated that his father had been a policeman at the time of the raid and had told him about what had happened. He confirmed what the old lady had said, that several men had been placed in the shallow drain, which at that time of year would be dry, but as soon as the monsoon came, the ditch would be flooded to about five or six feet deep. he also confirmed what the man had told me and drew a rough map showing the area where the men had been buried. He then went on to explain that a few years ago, the owner of the rubber plantation had employed some workmen to help clear the culvert. One of the work men came to the police station and wanted to hand in a chain necklace which had been threaded through a wedding ring. The man was told to hold onto the chain etc and leave his name and address. The records have since been disposed of.
After this I contacted Mr Hamdan Ahammu the senior director of public affairs with the Railway. He was quite sympathetic, and agreed that to do any further digging would take a lot of time and cost a great deal of money. I don't know if it was he who suggested or if it was I who suggested that we should approach the Commonwealth War graves to ascertain the possibility of obtaining a small piece of land, approximately 144 square feet of the railway property, on which to build a simple memorial to which the families of those missing but known to be buried close by, could come and pay their respects. He emphasised that he felt sure that the KTM directors would give the small piece of land to the commission as a token of their regard. Out of interest, the Japanese have built a memorial about fifteen miles away dedicated to the 30,000 Japanese soldiers who died during this period
The total cost of my project was £1,740.00. £1,040 from donations, the balance from my Visa card.
I estimate that to build a memorial at the point suggested, would cost far less than this. From my records and data, I have twenty four British soldiers who were on the train and who died, plus a number of Indian soldiers not yet calculated. Ten of these soldiers are buried in Taiping cemetery.
Arthur Lane
10th November 1995
YOU’RE NOT PUTTING ME IN MY CAVE!