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of Scottish News Agency who spent many hours quarrying my memory to make this book possible. Thanks are also due to Graham Ogilvy, our editor at Scottish News Agency, and to ‘Stan’, our agent at Jenny Brown Associates. I am indebted also to Richard Beswick at Little, Brown who recognised the potential of my story.

The Australian War Memorial and David Martin of Fotopress assisted with photographs. Leslie Bates generously supplied still photographs of the rescue of torpedoed survivors taken by her father Mr Joe Bates, an officer aboard USS Sealion II.

A number of individuals have done so much to keep alive the memory of what we suffered in the Far East. They include: Ron Taylor and Keith Andrews of the Far East Prisoner of War Association; Roger Mansell in San Francisco, who maintains and updates an excellent website that is invaluable for research; and Rod Beattie, who deserves recognition for his sterling efforts in developing the work of the Burma Thailand Railway Memorial Association. US Navy veteran Sid Mouser helped contact the Bates family and hosts moving film of the rescue of the torpedoed survivors on his SubRescue channel on YouTube.

The Gordon Highlanders Museum has also been very supportive and helpful.

My daughter, Joyce, has been a great encouragement and my dear friend Helen Scroggie has been a pillar of strength during the writing of these memoirs. I would like to thank Meg Parkes of the Liverpool Hospital of Tropical Medicine. Last but not least, I would like to thank my consultant and friend Keith Baxby but for whose skill and dedication I would not be here today.

Index

Aberdeen

Alistair’s return

Bridge of Don barracks

Capital Theatre

Highlanders’ reunion

Palais de Dance

Woodend hospital

Aden

Afghanistan

Albury, First Lieutenant Charles

Alfie, Uncle

Alice, Aunt

Anderson, Sandy

Arbroath

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

Ash, Miss

Aso, Taro

‘atap stare’

atomic bombs

Auchinyell Brae

Australia

Australians

and clandestine cigarettes

and cricket

and Parit Sulong massacre

and Selarang Incident

ballroom dancing

Bam Pong

Bangkok

banzai charges

Barker, Tommy

Bataan Death March

Battle of Britain

Battle of the Somme

Bay of Bengal

Beahan, Kermit

bed bugs

Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire regiment

bicycles

Bissett, Eric

Black Watch

Blackpool

Blakamati

Bon Accord Swimming Club

Borneo

Boy Scouts

Bradman, Don

Brechin

Bren guns

Brentwood, Essex

Brind, Freddie

and Chungkai

and clandestine cigarettes

and education

return and early death

scavenging skills

Brind, James

Brind, Nora

Bukit Timah

Burma

bushido code

Butler, Lady

Calcutta

California

Cameronians

Canada

Canberra

cannibalism

Chamberlain, Neville

Changi

church services

concert parties

discipline

and escape attempts

food and diet

and mental health

and spies

work parties

Changi jail

Cherbourg

Chiang Kai-shek

Chicago

China

chocolates

Christianity

Chungkai hospital camp

and clandestine cigarettes

theatrical shows

Churchill, Winston

and fall of Singapore

cigarettes, clandestine

Clydeside blitz

coalmines

Cold War

Compton, Denis

Cornwall

cricket

Death Railway

bridge construction

burial parties

and cholera epidemic

doctors

escapees

food and diet

and friendships

Kanyu camps

kow-towing

latrines

and mental health

mortality rates

and prisoners’ ranks

punishments

roll-calls

sabotage attempts

scale of undertaking

survivors’ evidence

time-keeping

Declaration of Arbroath

Dee, River

disabled sports

diseases

beriberi

cholera

dengue fever

diphtheria

dysentery