Tavendale-Henry-Alexander

To honour those who served their country

“In this their finest hour”

2881341

Sergeant

Henry Alexander Tavendale

1920/10/01 - Born Perth, Scotland

Son of Harry and Mary Tavendale

Occupation Auctioneer

Gordon Highlanders

Att:- Liaison Section

Japanese PoW

1942/02/15 - Captured Singapore City

Japanese Index Card - Side One

Japanese Index Card - Side Two

*Date*	*Camp*	*Commander*
*1942/02/15*	*Changi Camp*
*1942/08/16*	*Fukkai Maru*	*Lt_Col. H.D St G. Cardew*
*1942/09/22*	*Jinsen, Korea*
	*PoW No. I-106*
	*Chosen (Korea) POW Camp Roll*
*1943/07/20*	*Kobe*
*1945/05/10*	*Fukuoka 27 - Oaza Nara, Tagawa*
*1945/08/15*	*Camp No. 34046*
	*Fukuoka POW Camp Roll*
	*Branch XXVII Oaza Nara, Tagawa-Gun Fukuoka-Ken*

1945/09/22 - Liberated

Letter On The Way Home

Dear Mother,

I am now on my last lap to Canada and we are due in Esquimalt on Friday.

Hawaii turned out a great success after a shaky beginning. Officially we were confined to the dockyard area. Apparently a previous boatload of British had proven too big a handful for the Yanks in Honolulu. However in the docks and barrack area everything was laid on for us, swimming pools, canteens, departmental stores charging 25% of civilian prices and so on.

A friend and I first of all on going onshore had a gorge in a cafeteria and then thought of beer. Now beer in the American forces is hard to find so we hailed a jeep and the driver very obligingly shuttled us to a beer canteen. We had a wonderful time—we talked the Yanks out of breath and don’t say they are smart—I had a pocket full of Aussie pennies, the earnings from a pontoon school, and sold them to souvenir hunters for 25cts for two, approximately 800% profit. My friend talked himself to sleep about 4pm and we returned him to the ship.

Then seeing that Honolulu was banned I had to go to Honolulu ---we discussed the problem and then changed the jeep for an army post office truck----I was in the back and we passed out of the docks without any bother. But Honolulu was never reached. The driver asked if I would like to meet a WAVE and being a bit behind with social activities I agreed. After charging all around the island at sixty we drove into a WAVE Barracks. Two girls were playing tennis but we stopped the game by driving through the net. My two Yank friends looked like being murdered until they Said they had brought an Englishman (they did not understand the concept of Scottish). Peace was signed.

They dragged us into a dormitory where 30 or so girls off night duty were thinking of going into bed.

One of the Tennis players yelled ‘look what I’ve got ‘someone replied disinterestedly ‘what now’. You should have seen the stampede when she replied an Englishman. They bounded out of bed. I was swamped. To avert my suffocation one of the Yanks fetched in two cases of beer from the truck, what a party. The girls were all officers and one by one they kept asking me for a date. Being a materialist and knowing it was not my good looks they were after, I enquired, why all the popularity.

The explanation, the girls kept a ‘date score’. Yanks only 1—5 points whether they were privates to colonels. A foreigner scored 10. I compromised and dated them all so they all dressed and we went to The Royal Hawaiian Hotel and threw a party at their expense, Three Blokes and Thirty Girls----I was off my head by the time I returned to the ship about nine hours adrift. They all lined up and to the envy of the crew I had to kiss them good-bye. I have all their addresses still. I have practically recovered by now.

Most of us have had cables from home but I have not. Hope everything is all right.

Yours

Henry

PS Had more cash after than before.