I've spent the last few days with the happy-sad mode on. Wandering around in new families hoping to find a link to another particular as yet unproven family. Did so but not the one I was looking for until I searched birth records for a child recorded as being in this particular family via census & marriages. Neither FreeBMD nor GRO has her except as the child of another family/ Mother. I finally found her Baptism at St. Stephen, Upton Park, Essex. Wondered perhaps if there had been an adoption.? 6 yrs after her brother was born. I had found a lovely spouse for her & his name almost matched the family name I was looking for just slightly different spelling & wasn't from northerly parts of England which is what I was hoping for. Her Uncle meanwhile, I had settled with spouse & family up to 1939 until I discovered he had died in France in 1917, the year after he arrived there "either KIA or died of his wounds" after being listed as 'missing' . I don't quite ken from the burial order note whether he was found & buried or not found but named on Arras memorial. [see below] Sadly, he leaves another mystery, which I won't ever chase up as it is their private family matter, & ends in 1945 'Jampias' anyone heard of it? re:- 1501: Far East: Malayan Volunteer Forces, British POWs in Borneo; Death Certificates; A to L. On a lighter note, during all of thse searches which meandered all around the place, I was intrigued to see on one 1871 census, a family of 10 living in/at 'Lamb Barn'. in a Surrey district. Family health matters have held sway with my adventures of late, so today after a visit to hospital to check his cataract surgery results, I'm hoping for a softer afternoon, perhaps extending these families a little more.
Name probablly crucified by Ancestry transcribers. edit I regret am loath to give names as this is my 4th cousin, but some will never know due to conditions of his birth which is not my info. to reveal. If anyone stumbled upon names it can be readily sorted out, but I am a stranger to his family.
OK, with you now. There was a Japanese internment camp, Tjimahi,in West Java. This could be it. Borneo, same area. My uncles name was Tjeerd, the T was silent. He was born of Dutch parents in Java. There is also camp Kampili in now Sulawesi. Other than those two there’s not anything closer Wiki has a list of Japanese pow camps in the area.
I saw a few listss this afternoon during my 'softer time', but couldn't see anything remotely like. Archives leave me un educated also.
I came across this mansell dot com great site in which he has researched the Japanese prison camps. All names of camps and detached outlying camps are listed.....nothing remotely like Jampias. What I did find was a list of all deaths in the camps listed. So sad. One list of hundreds of men who drowned on one day. Air Force, army and Dutch all on the one day. It’s just awful. However all lists end in June 1945
Still nothing but if he died on Borneo on or around that date, then chances are he was on one of the death marches from Sandakan. The second march began 29/5/1945 with 536 prisoners. The march lasted 26 days. 183 prisoners made it to Ranau. The final march started on 9/6/1945 with 75 men. As each man collapsed with exhaustion he was shot by the Japanese guards. Jampais could be a little out camp or village on the way to Ranau. I know sweet nothing of the war but I’m certainly learning things now that I wish I hadn’t. Thank goodness for war crime tribunals.
641 Britons were on those death marches. Not one survived 1700 Australians were on the same marches. 6 survived to tell their story. 6 brave men to bring justice.The Japanese commander was tried and executed.
Brilliant work Sue, thank you. I've looked in all the wrong places- over thinking again. So easy to mis take 't' + 'J'. Haven't found him on CWWG site. I'd rather have had the Mantra or a herbal remedy.
Isn’t it amazing how a death can be recorded as dying from malaria but there is no known grave. Lots of POW’s seemed to have that recorded as their death. That or dysentery.
It’s not how most of them died though. When a lot of bodies were found it wasn’t malaria that did it. I won’t go into detail. That was then. This is now and it serves no purpose but I have certainly learned a lot.
