This card is from my late Father’s large collection of documents relating to the fall of Singapore, Changi, and the Railway of Death. My Father (Lance Corporal Frank Augustin Hazel Champkin) was in the Military Police corps, 4th. Suffolks 18th. Division. Following the fall of Singapore on 19 Feb. 1942 he was interned, firstly in Changi, and then transferred to Songkurai camp in Thailand in cattle trucks. They arrived at the camp after a 14 day march from Ban Pong.
Whilst a PoW he was only allowed to write four post cards home. This card is the first card written on 20 June 1942 while still in Changi POW camp. The cards were collected by the Red Cross, and only reached his family a year later.
I have begun a project writing short ‘fictional’ stories based around the stories my Father shared, and only recently retrieved my Father’s collection from storage.
