Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) officers 1939-1945 -- K

Mr Jonathan Kirton writes about his uncle and godfather: "While there he was posted to Singapore to join a RN ship, upon which he was to be promoted to Lieut. Commander, however his departure was delayed by a dental infection which kept him in hospital at Freetown, so that he missed the ship on which he was supposed to have sailed, so that he did not arrive at Singapore until about the 8th of February, 1942, by which time the island was under attack. (If his departure had not been delayed, he might have been killed on the ship that he was supposed to have joined, which was evidently sunk a couple of days later.) In the confusion of the surrender he escaped from Singapore on a Royal Navy tug which departed for Bauka / Bangka, Sumatra towing three barges which were filled with British service men's dependents, mostly wives and children. On Friday, 13 Feb., 1942 both the tug and all the barges were sunk by bombs from Japanese aircraft. Stanley was one of a very fortunate few who got off on a Carley float, as he said, without even getting his feet wet. He said that hundreds of men, women and children were killed that day, and 47 ships of all shapes and sizes were sunk in that area. He and a few companions landed on a small island from which Japanese troops picked them up two days later on the 15th of February, towing them to Palembang, Sumatra in a crowded & filthy coal barge. After 4 months there he was taken back to Singapore, and from there up Malaya to Thailand, where he was forced to work on the Bangkok to Rangoon railway, which the Japanese were building through the jungle to aid getting supplies up for their planned attack on India. As he said, he helped as little as possible, but was still knocked about and beaten up by the Japanese guards. He suffered malaria, beriberi, jungle sores, etc.. After the war my parents and I became friends with Stanley's Senior British Officer in Camp No. 4, who told us that more than once he had been certain that Stanley would be dead by the next morning, but he always survived, no doubt because of his incredible sense of humour. When they were finally liberated in 1945 he went down to Bangkok and was flown to Rangoon, and from there to the 139th Indian / British General Hospital at Nankum, near Romchi, Behar Province, India, where he remained for more than 6 months, until Nov. 1945, when he was finally considered fit enough to fly home to England."