7597371
Lance Corporal
James Thomas Scott
1918/08/26 - Born Bootle, Lancashire
Son of Donald Cameron and Annie Beatrice Scott
Occupation Butcher
Married
1939/05/08 - Enlisted
Royal Army Ordnance Corps
18th Division
Attached to L.A.D 88 Field Regiment
Service
1941/10/30 - Left Liverpool for Halifax in Convoy CT.5.
1941/11/08 - At Halifax transferred to American liners
1941/11/10 - Left Halifax with Convoy William Sail 12X, destination unknown, believed to be Middle East.
Above Photo of Convoy William Sail 12X supplied by the late Maurice Rooney
Vought SB 2U Vindicator Scout Bomber - USS Ranger which was flying an Anti Submarine patrol over the convoy.
Front Line Top to Bottom:-
USS West Point - USS Mount Vernon - USS Wakefield - USS Quincy (Heavy Cruiser)
Back Row Top To Bottom:-
USAT Leonard Wood - USS Vincennes (Heavy Cruiser) - USS Joseph T Dickman
(USS Orizaba Ap-24 also sailed with Convoy though not pictured in photo)
1941/12/08 - Japan entered war by bombing Pearl Harbour and invading Malaya
18th Division diverted from Middle East and sent to Singapore
1942/02/15 - Singapore surrendered to Japanese
1942/04/01 - WO 417/41, Casualty List No. 786. Reported ‘Missing’.
1943/06/17 - WO 417/62, Casualty List No. 1163. Previously shown on Casualty List No. 786 as Missing, 15/02/1942. Now reported a ‘Prisoner of War’.
Japanese PoW
1942/02/15 - Captured Singapore
18th Div. Area Changi, Singapore
Commander Maj.Gen. Beckett-Smith
1942/07/20 - Roberts Hospital, Changi
1942/08/ - Released from Hospital
PoW No. I 5576
Japanese Index card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
The Japanese promised those sick or in hospital, a place to conveless, get well, which was not true, they were shipped to work on the Thailand-Burma Railway. ‘H’ and ‘F’ Force had the most deaths on working on the Thailand-Burma Railway.
1943/05/13 - Transported overland to Thailand with ‘H’ Force, Train 5
81st trail to Thailand
Commander Lt-Col. R.R. Humphreys, 77 H.A.A Regiment, RA
New PoW No. 9516
1943/05/28 - Tonchan South, 131km from Nong Pladuk
Commander Lt-Col. Newey
1943/08 - Kanchanaburi Hospital, 52km from Nong Pladuk
1943/12/10 - Transported back to Sime Road Hospital, Singapore
Commander Lt-Col. Newey
1944/02/ - Selerang Hospital, Singapore
Commander Lt-Col. Collins
1944/05 - Kranji Hospital, Singapore
1945/11/02 - Liberation
General Seishiro Itagaki, Japanese Commander of Singapore, would not accept the surrender. Plus it gave him time to cover up all Japanese Atrocities in Singapore. The allied naval landing force 'Operation Tiderace' were delayed as it was still understood the Japanese would dispose of all the PoWs in Singapore if they landed. Mountbatten ordered British paratroopers into Singapore to protect the camps. To many of the PoWs in Singapore, those red berets of the paratroopers were the first signs that the war had ended. All this delayed organising the PoWs. It wasn't till the 12th September that Lord Mountbatten accepted the Japanese surrender at the Municipal Building. Hospital cases were the first to leave Singapore 1945/09/10 on the HMHS Koroa. They were soon followed by Repatriation ships which started reaching the UK about the 15th of October 1945. Why many of the liberated PoWs on these ships had November on their Japanese Index cards, I don't know as in other areas of the Far East, PoWs were marked as Liberated at their PoW camps with the correct date. Unless General Seishiro Itagaki did not make the cards available when the camps were liberated.
Liberation Questionnaire
1945/11/06 - WO417/99, Casualty List No. 1903. Previously shown on Casualty List No. 1163 as reported Prisoner of War now Not Prisoner of War. Previous Theatre of War, Malaya.
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Pacific Star
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War Medal
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1939-1945 Star
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Information
Peter Scott
Japanese Transports
Thailand-Burma Railway
Liberation Questionnaire - COFEPOW
KEW Files:- WO 392/26, WO 345/46, WO 367/3, WO 361/1948, WO 361/2181, WO 361/2064,
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