A very good obituary in the British Daily Telegraph online newspaper a few days back now.

An ex Burma - Thailand Railway POW passes away at aged 89.

Lt Alexander, A young Territorial Army officer captured at Singapore and sent to work in Thailand from November 1942 to the end of the WW2 in 1945.

He worked and survived in most area's of the railway's construction and towards the end of the war when Japan was clearly losing in 1945, he and fellow POW's were marched from Kanchanaburi to Nakhon Nayok, where eventually he was freed after the war ended.

Over the years living here I have done the Kanchanburi thing many times, cemeteries/Bridge/museum/Hellfire Pass and some of the hotels on the banks of the Kwai that were sites of POW camps during the railway construction and have enormous admiration for those old guys.

Thailand in 1942-45!, I wonder if Mr Alexander ever came back for a visit to modern Thailand?

Apparently he wrote a book 'River Kwai Run Softly' on his experiences.

I will Amazon it and see if its still in print.

R.I.P

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/o...4.ece?FORM=ZZNR

Hello, I hope this man had a much better life after the war. My prayers and good wishes to him and his family.

This just a week after the last surviving British WW1 veteran passed.

A very good obituary in the British Daily Telegraph online newspaper a few days back now.

An ex Burma - Thailand Railway POW passes away at aged 89.

Lt Alexander, A young Territorial Army officer captured at Singapore and sent to work in Thailand from November 1942 to the end of the WW2 in 1945.

He worked and survived in most area's of the railway's construction and towards the end of the war when Japan was clearly losing in 1945, he and fellow POW's were marched from Kanchanaburi to Nakhon Nayok, where eventually he was freed after the war ended.

Over the years living here I have done the Kanchanburi thing many times, cemeteries/Bridge/museum/Hellfire Pass and some of the hotels on the banks of the Kwai that were sites of POW camps during the railway construction and have enormous admiration for those old guys.

Thailand in 1942-45!, I wonder if Mr Alexander ever came back for a visit to modern Thailand?

Apparently he wrote a book 'River Kwai Run Softly' on his experiences.

I will Amazon it and see if its still in print.

89! Same age as my grandad (served in Egypt and the Solomons), who I am pleased to say is still well and pottering around in his garden as I write.

My ex is from Banpong and her grandfather worked as a driver for the Japanese in WW2. A couple of the main staging post / holding camps for workers on the railway were located around the Banpong area. He was about 14 at the time and used to smuggle food into the camps for some of the soldiers in the field hospital. This was the sort of thing that he'd be shot for if found out.

After the war quite a few, mainly Aussies, came back and tracked him down to thank him for saving their life. I remember seeing all the letters he'd received and had translated by a teacher at the local school. A big old box with faded envelopes going back almost 50 years. Not sure what happened to it now though as he died a few years back.

Sure there are lots more stories like that from the old locals in the area who probably dont get as much credit for their bravery as they should.

Amazing how those heroes could last 3 years of hel_l.

R.I.P