The Record Book
Set out below is an annotated copy of the original record book, compiled on the Burma Railway, which features in The Prisoner List.
The record book charts the movements of the first thousand prisoners to have been shipped into slavery following the fall of Singapore. They had initially been sent to Saigon, but most of these had since been moved into the jungles of Thailand, and the high death rate shown in these records demonstrates the grim truth of what that meant.
There is other material here too – including a surprising speech by a Japanese camp commandant and maps of two POW camp cemeteries along the railway (with details of the men buried there).
The record book charts the movements of the first thousand prisoners to have been shipped into slavery following the fall of Singapore. They had initially been sent to Saigon, but most of these had since been moved into the jungles of Thailand, and the high death rate shown in these records demonstrates the grim truth of what that meant.
There is other material here too – including a surprising speech by a Japanese camp commandant and maps of two POW camp cemeteries along the railway (with details of the men buried there).
To view the record book in a format that you can download to your computer, please click here.
Stephen Hagen has converted the record book into a spreadsheet which in particular has the advantage of being searchable. To download the spreadsheet to your computer, please click here.
Stephen Hagen has converted the record book into a spreadsheet which in particular has the advantage of being searchable. To download the spreadsheet to your computer, please click here.
The Saigon-Thailand Database
A separate database has been compiled in recent years by Jean Roberts and Frank Clark, focusing on the seven hundred prisoner transferred from Saigon to Thailand in June 1943. (This document is all the more remarkable for the fact that it was put together without the benefit of the record book shown above.)
It covers most of the names contained in the record book (i.e. those sent to Thailand), and has the added advantage of including information from the surviving prisoners' liberation forms completed after they arrived home.
You can view the latest version of this database (again, in a searchable format that you can download to your computer) here.
It covers most of the names contained in the record book (i.e. those sent to Thailand), and has the added advantage of including information from the surviving prisoners' liberation forms completed after they arrived home.
You can view the latest version of this database (again, in a searchable format that you can download to your computer) here.
First Saigon Reunion Dinner
Jean Roberts has also provided this photograph that was taken at the first of the annual Saigon Reunion Dinners that were held in London after the war.
Of the men standing at the side, 6th from the right is Lt. Colonel Hugonin and to the right of him is M. Emile Lienard (who became known to the men as "Sparks"). Sparks was a French resident of Saigon who smuggled news, money and medicines into the prisoner-of-war camp throughout the men's internment there – at enormous personal risk to himself.
Please click on the photograph to view a larger version of it.
Of the men standing at the side, 6th from the right is Lt. Colonel Hugonin and to the right of him is M. Emile Lienard (who became known to the men as "Sparks"). Sparks was a French resident of Saigon who smuggled news, money and medicines into the prisoner-of-war camp throughout the men's internment there – at enormous personal risk to himself.
Please click on the photograph to view a larger version of it.