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128680
Captain
Thomas Boyd Smiley
Bachelor of Medicine
1917/05/09 - Born Castlewellan, County Down, Northern Ireland
Son of Samuel and Emma Smiley
Thomas was educated at the Methodist College, Belfast, where he captained the 1st XV and was head of school.
He entered Queen's University and after qualifying and working as a house surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
Next of Kin Parents Parents: S and E Smiley, Anderley, County Down
Royal Army Medical Corps
32 Company, Alexandra Military Hospital
Service
Thomas was stationed at Singapore in 1940.
1941/12/08 - Japan entered the war by Bombing Pearl Harbour and attacking Hong Kong and Malaya. Japanese troops land the Malayan border with Thailand at Kota Bharu (Malaya), Singora and Patani (Thailand).
As the Japanese had taken the airfield at Kota Bharu, the Allied troops had very little air cover and by the 31st of January 1942, Allied Troops were pushed back to Singapore. The causeway joining Singapore to Malaya was blown to stop the Japanese advance.
On the 9th February the Japanese attacked the North West coast of Singapore. General Percival had set his main defence on the North East coast line, and the Japanese quickly gained the advantage.
Thomas was Stationed at Alexandra Hospital on the 14th of February 1941.
At 1330 hours, Japanese troops pressed along the Ayer Rajah Road pushing back some Indian troops, some Japanese Imperial Guards from the Chrysanthemum Division were seen to approach the back of Alexandra Hospital at 1400 hours, Lieutenant Western, who was a medical officer approached them with a white flag, he was bayoneted to death.
The following article is from an interview with Thomas in September 1945
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MURDERS IN A HOSPITAL
SINGAPORE, Sunday.
ONE of the worst Japanese atrocities came to light to-day and is now the subject of investigation. The facts as related have been authenticated by three British and one Australian officer.
On Feb. 14, 1942, a Japanese force attacked Alexandria Hospital, just outside Singapore. They rushed into the operating theatre, bayoneted to death patients on the tables and doctors and orderlies in attendance.
The only doctor to escape was Capt. Tom Smiley, R.A.M.C., who, finding it impossible to save a patient. a British gunner whose legs had been blown off by a shell, fell back dragging the orderly with him and feigned death after a bayonet had struck a cigarette case in his breast pocket.
He the orderly, and four others eventually managed to escape.
After the operation theatre slaughter the Japanese overran the wards, bayoneting the patients in the beds and the orderlies. They jabbed the patients, made them scream, and tore the bandages from their wounds.
The Japanese marshalled, the walking cases and the remaining doctors and orderlies, tied them with ropes, and marched them out under British shell-fire to three small huts, each nine feet by nine.
When dawn broke after a night of hell the Japanese reappeared and took the victims in twos in turns behind the huts, returning, with blood dripping from their bayonets, for the next two
Only six escaped the massacre,
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By the 15th February the Japanese were in danger of taking control of the water supply at the reservoirs, which would endanger the Singapore City water supply. General Percival had no alternative but to surrender.
1942/02/15 - Singapore surrendered to the Japanese
1942/June - Reported ‘Missing’.
1943/01/14 - WO417/004, Casualty List No. 1032. Previously shown on Casualty List No. 770 (Corrected by List No. 773) as reported Missing, 15/02/1942 and with initials as T.E. Now reported a ‘Prisoner of War’.
Japanese PoW
1942/02/15 - Captured Singapore
MO Roberts Hospital
PoW No. i/572
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
Transported to Kranji Hospital
New PoW No. 949
1945/11/02 - Liberated Singapore
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.
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December 1945
Belfast News Letter
BACK FROM FAR EAST
Belfast doctor repatriated
Major Duncan Black, of the Indian Medical Service, has re-turned to his home in Belfast from the Far East, where he had been a prisoner of war since the fall of Singapore. He is the eldest son of the Rev. A. P. Black.
When interviewed yesterday by "Belfast News-Letter" reporter, Major Black had his left foot in a plaster cast, having developed a pressure fracture during captivity. When captured he had only one pair of shoes, and had to make wooden shoes to wear while work-ing with the British prisoners in the laying of the Bangkok railway. It was while engaged on this work that many British soldiers died malnutrition, dysentry, and of malaria.
While a prisoner of war Major Black met two other Belfast officers, Captain Tom Smiley. R.A.M.C., and Captain Stephen Campbell, R.A.M.C.
"I have passed through an experience that I never hope to relive," said Major Black as he described the callous treatment that the British prisoners received from the Japanese He saw one prisoner being beaten to death for having disobeyed an order.
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Pacific Star
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War Medal
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1939-1945 Star
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Far East Medals
Post War
Thomas returned to Belfast, sitting the FRCS and his interest in thoracic surgery took him to the Brompton Hospital where as RSO he was influenced by Sir Clement Price Thomas.
He had married Elizabeth Mills in 1945 and they were blessed with four children, Christopher, Ian, Eric and daughter Fiona.
In 1951 he was appointed consultant to the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and to Forster Green and Whiteabbey Hospitals. In 1950, while still a registrar, he carried out the first mitral valvotomy in Ireland and with John Bingham established the cardiothoracic surgical unit in Belfast instituting the open heart surgical programme.
Thomas farmed 60 acres at Magheragall, Northern Ireland. On his retirement in 1977, the family moved to Bridge Farm at Litcham, Norfolk.
Thomas passed away 2nd August 1981, aged 64.
Information
Fiona Wright - Daughter
Fall of Malaya and Singapore
14th February 1942
Royal College of Surgeons England
KEW Files:- WO 392/26, WO 367/1, WO 345/47, WO 361/1946, WO 361/2064, WO 361/2180, WO 361/2180,
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