Prisoner of War hand-made autograph book - Sumatra 1944
c. 1944Hand-made, rectangular autograph book with covers made from woven military webbing and central leaves made from sections of crumpled brown paper. The pages are held in place by cotton threads at the spine.
Entries have been made by British prisoners of war in pencil and those which are dated were done in early October 1944.
Most are named and some include illustrations in addition to the writing. Two early pages have very faint writing which appear to have definitions and pronunciations of words as in a dictionary.
Two of the last three pages relate to weather - monthly averages of temperature and rain in London, Scotland and smaller centres, including North Tyne. The last page has a list of numbers (possibly dates) and three columns of numbers which increase from left to right.
This one-of-a-kind autograph book was made by British soldiers who were captured in Malaya in February 1942 and taken prisoners of war, mostly up until after the war concluded.
They served in various units including Royal Army Service Corps, Royal Corps of Signals and Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
The book appears to have belonged to a man named Jim, as he is mentioned twice.
Details
Details
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