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3859284
Trooper
William Parkinson
1917/09/04 - Born Bolton, Lancashire
Son of William and Jane Parkinson
1940/01/11 - Enlisted
18 Reconnaissance Corps
18th Division
Service
1940 left Fullwood Barracks, Preston for Liverpool. The final destination was unknown but was thought to be North Africa.
1941/10/30 - Sailed from Liverpool
1941/11/08 - Reached Halifax
Transferred to U.S.S. Mount Vernon
1941/10/10 - Sailed for Cape Town, South Africa. Then on to Kenya and Bombay, India.
1942/01/21 - In Bombay Ivan changed ships for the Empress of Asia which sailed for Singapore
The ship was bombed by the Japanese about three mile from Singapore, eventually ending up at Medan, Sumatra
Japanese PoW
1942/08/17 - Captured Padang
Under Commander Captain R.W. (Peter) Morley
PoW No. 91
1942/06/15 - Driven in open trucks from Padang on the west coast to Belawen on the north east coast
Gloegoer Camp, Belawen, which is the port for Medan
1942/06/22 - Gloegoer Camp, Medan, Sumatra
Under Major P.E. Campbell, 9th Indian Div.
On 17 July they were forced to sign a ‘No Escape paper’.
Japanese Index Card - Side One
Japanese Index Card - Side Two
1944/06/24 - The Harugiku Maru (sometimes called Van Waerwijck), left Belawan with 1174 PoW’s (Dutch, British and Australian), destination Sumatra-railway. The PoWs came from camps in Northern-Sumatra: Gloegoer (720 men) and Soengei Sengkol (458 men). The ship sailed in convoy with 2 small tankers and 2 small corvettes.
1944/06/26 (at 14:00) - The ship, navigating quite near the coast, was hit by two torpedoes from the submarine HMS Truculent (the ship broke in half and sank in a few minutes). One corvette and one tanker were also sunk. The other ships of the convoy took the surviving men on board. A total of 178 men drowned (113 Dutch, 48 British, 12 Australian), the survivors were taken by various ships to Singapore, where further 22 men died from wounds, pneumonia and exhaustion.
1944/06/28 - Transported to River Valley, Singapore
Under Major P.E. Campbell, 9th Indian Div.
1944/07/04 - The ferry Queen Elisabeth 3 took the first group of 250 survivors to Pakan Baroe, Sumatra, to work on the Sumatra-railway. During the following days another three transports were made.
1944/08/04 - Transported to Pakan Baroe to work on the Sumatra Railway
Under Commander Lt. Nichols
New PoW No. 8364
1945/09/02 - Liberated
1945/10/15 - Released for repatriation
Information
Jane Parkinson
Escape from Singapore - 1942
KEW:- WO 361/2006, WO 392/25, WO 345/39, WO 345/28, WO 361/1948, WO 361/2178, WO 361/2063,
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