Archive of Our Own

Clip from the Antiques Roadshow broadcast 26 April 2026.

Show time from start: 26:25 to 38:40 (Considered so unusual and important it was not cut much in editing and allowed to go twice as long as a usual clip)

Segment:    Mark Smith, WWII and Military Expert

Subject:     POW Correspondence, Thailand

Object:       A bound scrapbook with Lt. John Walker, RN on the front in neat gold letters, and a Naval Lieutenant's insignia painted beside them. Brought in by Timothy Walker.

Mark opens the book and leafs through several of the pages

Mark:        This is quite the collection, and I can see that there are a number of postcards from a Japanese Prisoner of War camp – they used a pre-printed card for most of the information, and then the prisoner was allowed to add 25 words of their own. What's the history here?

Timothy:    My grandfather served in the Royal Navy during World War Two, and he was seconded to HMAS Perth early in 1942, to assist with the war in the Pacific.

Mark:        The Perth was sunk during the battle of Sunda Strait on the night of 28^th February, along with a Dutch and an American ship. It was a major defeat. I believe less than half of those on board the ships survived to be captured by the Japanese and sent to camps. I take it your grandfather was one of them?

Timothy:    That's right. He and several other sailors on the Perth ended up at Camp 12, Bandung. In 1943 he was sent to Thailand to work on the railroad there, and then in early 1945, he was moved to Japan, where he was when the war ended. Most of the time he was in with the Australians and Dutch. There were 120 prisoners from the Perth sent to Bandung, which is in Java. By the end of the war, less than fifteen were alive.

Mark:        Harsh times. Who put this scrapbook together?

Timothy:    My great-aunt Susan did. She was Grandpa's sister, and she kept all the correspondence, and the newspaper clippings. I got to talk with her when I was young, for a school project about the war, and when she died ten years ago, she left me this scrapbook.

Mark turns to the front page, where two black-and-white photographs and a letter are displayed. One shows a young man in a new Royal Navy uniform, a studio shot as was quite common when an officer gained a commission. The other photograph shows a view of some weatherboard huts with two kangaroos close to the camera, looking into the lens curiously.

Mark:        Tell me the story.

Timothy:    My grandfather was promoted to Lieutenant in January 1942. That's him in his uniform with the new patches. The letter is to my Gran, Nancy. Her real name was Ruth Blackett, but she hated that. The photo is from Jervis Bay in New South Wales, where the Australian Navy have a base.

Camera shows the letter, written in a neat hand on good quality paper with HMAS Cresswell on the crest on the top left. There is a "Passed by Censor" stamp in red next to the crest.

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5 February 1942

Dear Nancy,

It is as hot as you would expect in Australia in summer. Yesterday the thermometer reached 105 degrees, if you can believe it. We all of us wear shorts if we can, and more than a few of us British have terribly sunburnt knees. The papers are reporting that the usual warnings about bushfire weather have had to be censored because of the war, but Tommy Small, one of the Australian engineers here, told me that there's quite the risk.

There are kangaroos outside the huts. I think they're desperate for water as there hasn't been any decent rain here for four months. Hopefully there'll be some soon. Some of the men have been leaving bowls of water out for them, and we officers turn a blind eye to it. I took a photo of one who was carrying her baby in her pouch – the baby comes out when she stops to drink, but they're too skittish to get a picture then – the slightest threat and that baby is head-first into the pouch and off she hops.

I miss you so very much. If your great-aunt hadn't died just before I came on that last leave, I would have … never mind. There is no point in dwelling on the past. Just be sure that I won't be a duffer – I have you to come back to. I always cared for you as a friend, and I think it's wonderful that both you and I have fallen for each other. It might not have been so prudent to wait, but I want you to know that I am going to be thinking of you every day that I'm away.

Time to go and train the new Australian sailors. Obviously I can't tell you where and when I'm going to be sailing, but I can tell you I'll be on the Perth, and it's any day now.

I miss you so much. Please stay safe.

Love

John.

 

Mark:        He's right – you can just see the joey's head. Next, we have a telegram.

3 March 1942

TO:     

MRS WALKER
WISTERIA COTTAGE,
CHELSFIELD
KENT

DEEPLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT LT JOHN WALKER HAS BEEN REPORTED AS MISSING ON ACTIVE SERVICE. LETTER TO FOLLOW.

3 March 1942
Wisteria Cottage

Dearest Nancy,

I'm afraid I have terrible news. John's ship was sunk, and he's been listed as missing. We'll let you know as soon as we have anything else, of course, and we really must hope for the best. He might be floating on a raft, or beached at Krakatoa, or even being spirited away by the native Javanese to a safe place. Or maybe taken prisoner by the Japanese, in which case, hopefully, we will be notified soon. But we don't know.

Titty and Bridget and Susan send their love, as do I. Roger is somewhere up in Scotland, and I'm sending him a letter straight after I finish writing this one. When you are able, please tell Peggy.

Keep in touch. You are as much a part of this family as John is.

Love

M. Walker

Timothy:    We don't have the official letter, but Aunt Susan said that it told them enquiries would be made through the International Red Cross to try and determine whether he was alive or dead.

This is a newspaper clipping from 4 March 1942, showing that the Perth was among the ships destroyed in the battle. My great-aunt Mavis – that was her real name, but she had been Titty since she was a child – and a family friend, James Turner, had contacts in various places, but even they couldn't find any information.

The Red Cross told Granny Mary– that was my grandfather's mother, I never met her – to send postcards through them to be sent on to Japan and hopefully on to any prisoners, but we were only allowed to send one per month. Of course, Gran wrote too. Apart from the identifying information, you were only allowed 25 words. After the war, a pile of mail was discovered that had never been delivered, and several of the postcards were returned.

Two yellowed postcards with printed places for name, rank

12 June 1942
Name:  John Walker
Rank:   Lieutenant
Force:  Royal Navy
Last known location:   HMAS Perth, Sunda Strait

MISS. YOU. SO. MUCH. ALL. FAMILY. WELL. UNCLE. JIM. SAYS. KEEP. YOUR. SPIRITS. UP. PLEASE. KEEP. SAFE. AND. WELL. I. WILL. WAIT. LOVE. NANCY.

14 September 1942
Name:  John Walker
Rank:   Lieutenant
Force:  Royal Navy
Last known location:   HMAS Perth, Sunda Strait

DEAREST. JOHN. ALL. HERE. WELL. HOPE. YOU. ARE. TOO. NANCY. LIGHTING. CANDLES. TO. SHOW. YOUR. WAY HOME. PLEASE. BE. CAREFUL. LOVE. MOTHER. AND. FATHER.

Timothy:    Of course the family all wrote to each other. Great Uncle Roger was working on ship's engines in Scapa Flow, getting them ready for the Atlantic runs and then convoys to Russia. After the war, he became a well-known car designer. But Scapa Flow wasn't always safe – plenty of German raids there. Aunt Titty had a job that she wasn't allowed to tell us about, and the family didn't find out until the 1970s that she had been preparing agents for drops into France and the Netherlands to work behind the lines during the Allied invasion on D-Day. And Aunty Susan was one of the people calculating rations and trying to think of ways to extend the little food they had back then. The German ships were creating chaos in the convoys, destroying the supply lines, and Britain was really struggling.

And Gran? She was delivering planes all over the country, picking them up from the factories or where they had been mended after being shot, and taking them back to the airfields. Aunty Peggy, Gran's sister, did things with the aerial photographs brought back after raids, or when they were planning one. All the older members of that generation  were involved with war-work. The only one who wasn't, Aunty Bridget, was evacuated to Wales at the beginning of the War, but somehow made her way back to Kent once the danger of invasion was over. She was only eleven! Was at school though through the War, and for a while was very disappointed that she hadn't been able to do much. But once she saw what had happened to her brother John, my Grandpa, she changed her mind.

Letter on floral notepaper

[Location blacked out]

20 October 1942

Dearest Titty,

I think the not-knowing is the worst. If I just knew, if John were dead, we could mourn him and I'd cry and pine then finally give myself a shake and go on with life. Susan surprised me, though. She came to visit the other day, and she didn't tell me to get a hold of myself, or to use that stiff upper lip. We walked to the top of the little hill nearby, and she just held me and told me that as long as John was alive in our hearts, there was a chance. Then she asked me to tell her about when he and I realised we're not just friends. It was that trip to the Broads just after War was declared, to see the Coots and the Admiral. We hired a little gaff-rigged skiff and flew around Hickling Broad then had a picnic at the side. One of the cygnets kept trying to steal his lunch, and we laughed like crazy then suddenly it was if we were seeing each other clearly for the first time. Since then, it's as if we were always meant to be like that. He came to see me on his last leave before he went to Australia, just after Great Aunt Maria died, and I kept thinking he wanted to tell me something but he just kissed me and left to catch his train to London. If I'd known he was going to Australia, if I'd only known … but there's no point in wishing what could have happened. Susan is so very matter-of-fact, and that is what I must be. She is a darling, and I love her as much as I love you and the rest of the Walkers.

She also brought me some biscuits that she told me were an experimental bunch. It wasn't until I'd eaten one (it was delicious) that she confessed the "sugar" was actually grated carrots and beets. Well, if nothing else, at least I'll be able to see better in the dark!

You must promise me that no matter what the news, good or bad or even nothing yet, you will tell me. Let us not try and protect each other. There's no point. We all find out eventually.

I'm sending another postcard tonight. I know your mother does too. Do please give her and the rest of the family all my love.

 

Nancy

Stained postcard from M Walker to J Walker, POW. Instructions on reverse read : 

NOTE: The particulars inserted on the address side and the message in the space below must be TYPED or written clearly in BLOCK LETTERS. MESSAGES MUST NOT BE LONGER THAN 25 WORDS.

16 June 1943

DEAREST. JOHN. WE. ARE. ALL. HOPING. AND. PRAYING. THAT. THIS. REACHES. YOU. ALL. YOUR. FAMILY. AND. NANCY. AND. PEGGY. ARE. SAFE. MUCH. LOVE. MOTHER. AND. FATHER. 

Timothy:   Grandfather had actually been floating on a raft for a week with some of the other men before the Japanese picked him up and sent him to the camp in Java. He was allowed to send postcards to his family, but again many of them never left the country. He sent one every month, but it was the second or third card that finally got through to his family.

Mark:        When was it sent?

Timothy:    June 1942.

Mark:        And when did it get through?

Timothy:    September.

Mark:        So three months?

Timothy:    No, September 1944.

Mark:        I'd like to be surprised, but two years was not that unusual.

A page with a faded, stained postcard, fastened to the paper with stamp hinges so that it can be flipped sideways to read the other side. All but the names and addresses, the daily wage and the 25 words at the end were pre-printed. A "Passed by Censor" stamp showed on one side. 

 

SERVICE DES PRISONIERS DE GUERRE

FROM:           

NAME:           John Walker
NATIONALITY:        British
RANK:           Lieutenant
CAMP:            War Prisoners Camp, Bandung

To:       Mrs M Walker
Wisteria Cottage
Chelsfield
Kent
United Kingdom

(Other side)

IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY

I am interned at the Prisoners Camp at Bandung, Java

My health is (good, usual, poor)

I have not had any illness

I (am) (have been) in hospital

I am (not) working (for pay at twenty.five cents per day)

My salary is _______ per month.

I am with friends

DEAREST. MOTHER. DEEPEST LOVE. TO. YOU. AND. ALL. AT. HOME. TELL. NANCY. AM. NOT. AND. WILL. NOT. BE. DUFFER. HOPE. ALL. ARE. WELL. JOHN.

Mark:        And was that all that came through?

Timothy:    It was, until the war finished. But it was enough. Here – Granny Mary copied the postcard out and photographed it, then Aunt Titty, who had dropped by the house on her motorcycle while she was doing errands for her work, wrapped the postcard carefully in a handkerchief and rode down to Biggin Hill as fast as she could. She told me she got stopped by a security checkpoint at Downe, and waved one of her official envelopes and her security pass at them and swore it was an emergency and top secret. I wish I could have seen her. The trip is supposed to take twenty minutes. She did it in twelve. She lied her way through the front gate, claiming it was special orders for Group Officer Ruth Blackett, and even got let into the briefing room, where she had to wait fifteen minutes because Gran was out checking over a plane that had been used to tip up a V1.

Aunt Titty told me years later that Gran just stood still, like a statue, when she saw Titty, because of course she didn't know if it was good or bad news. Then Aunt Titty held out the postcard, and Gran burst into tears of joy, even before she read it. Because she knew that bad news comes by telegram, so a postcard had to be good.

She also told me that the Group Captain made Gran a cup of tea with his own special hidden supply, she was so white and trembling and unable to talk for a full half hour.

Mark:        What was the significance of the word duffer on the card? It was on the letter from Australia too.

Timothy:    When Grandpa and Aunt Titty and Aunt Susan and Uncle Roger were children, and they were hoping to spend a summer holiday sailing on Windemere, Granny Mary checked in with Great-Grandpa Ted to see if it was all right for them to go on the water without him there – he was a Naval Officer then. Uncle Roger was only 7 at the time, and Aunt Titty was 9. Great-Grandpa telegrammed to say BETTER DROWNED THAN DUFFERS IF NOT DUFFERS WON'T DROWN. It became a family saying – don't be a duffer – and it was a sign from Grandpa that it was really him.

Mark:        It had been two years since John Walker sent the card though. He survived?

Timothy:    He did.

Next page:       Telegram from British Prisoner Repatriation Office, Yokohama.

TO:     

MRS M. WALKER
WISTERIA COTTAGE
CHELSFIELD
KENT
28 SEPTEMBER 1945

LIEUTENANT JOHN WALKER RELEASED FROM YOKOHAMA CAMP 5. WILL REQUIRE UP TO 3 WEEKS HOSPITALISATION THEN IS LISTED FOR PRIORITY TRANSPORT TO BRITAIN. PLEASE LIAISE WITH REPATRIATION OFFICE REGARDING TIMING.

 

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Timothy:    Granny Mary of course let Nancy know as soon as she found out. It took more than a month, but Grandpa walked off the transport plane under his own steam when he reached Britain. He even landed at Biggin Hill.

Photo (dated 1 November 1945): A man in clean overalls who is hard to compare with the one in the first photograph. His arms are desperately skinny, and his face shows cheekbones so prominent you could cut bread with them. He is standing in the centre of a group with his arms around his mother on one side, and a young woman on the other, and if you look closely, you can see that the women are holding him up. The smile, though, is the same as the young officer in the earlier picture.

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Photo (25 December 1945): Same man, sitting with others around a Christmas table. His face has filled out somewhat, although it is still desperately thin. His plate holds only a little food, but his smile is enormous, and his arm is around the young woman from the earlier photograph,

Card:  Mrs Blackett, and Admiral and Mrs Walker, are pleased to invite you to the wedding of Nancy Blackett to John Walker, at St Martin of Tours Church of England, Chelsfield, on Saturday 20^th April 1946.

Newspaper article dated Monday 22nd April 1946: The wedding of Lieutenant John Walker to Group Officer Miss Ruth Blackett was a great time of joy for both families. Miss Blackett is wearing her mother's wedding dress, and is escorted by her sister Margaret who wears Mrs Walker's bridesmaid dress from Australia. Lieutenant Walker is supported by his brother Engineer Lieutenant Roger Walker, RN. The couple will honeymoon in the Lake District.

Mark:        (Wiping his eyes) This is an incredible collection, with such an amazing story to go with it. (Takes a deep breath) Now of course, collections such as these are priceless, even more so to the family, but they are highly collectable, and as such have a value.

Timothy:    Of course we'd never sell it.

Mark:        Definitely not, but – God forbid – if anything were to happen to it, you'd want to have it insured. The postcards to and from the camps are worth about thirty pounds each. Telegrams and official letters from the War Office, about twenty each. On top of that you have the personal letters, the photographs, and that sweet invitation. All of it as a collection, with the story that goes with it, is probably worth about three hundred pounds. But to you?

Timothy:         This is our family. That's all the value in the world.