Relative Journeys:River Kwai Revisited Page 2
Sally Grumbridge's very moving exhibition exploring her experiences as a tourist juxtaposted with her fathers as a prisoner of war in Thailand. exhibition continues page 3
Remembering Roses
7. Remembering Roses - oil on canvas with collage 80 x 30 cm £360
Amongst the other writings in his journal, are lists: lists of books, lists of winners of famous horse races, lists of sporting records, lists of friends, lists of pubs and … lists of names of roses. It seems incongruous to me, but perhaps it was a way of keeping sane. The image is from a sketch of jungle vegetation, near Hellfire Pass, the etching collage is his list of Hybrid Tea roses.
Embankment
8. Embankment - oil on canvas with collage 70 x 70 cm £575
Once the bridges were built at Tamarkan, most of the prisoners were sent further north into the jungle to work on different sections of the railway. The conditions ‘up country’ were far worse than at Tamarkan. Fortunately for him, my father ran the stores and canteen and stayed at Tamarkan when it became a hospital camp, still under Colonel Toosey’s control. Conditions in the many jungle camps along the railway were terrible: backbreaking work, starvation, disease, beatings, heat, monsoon rains – it is impossible to describe the horror in a few words. This painting is of one of the railway embankments near the Hellfire Pass Memorial.
Not the Poppy
13. Not the Poppy - oil on canvas with collage 80 x 30 cm £320
A poem, ‘No, Not the Poppy’ by Dennis Griffiths, a former POW, was the inspiration for this painting. “No, not the poppy but the pale orchid blooms in the dark of this remembrance”. The collage is part of a record of all the British servicemen who were Japanese prisoners of war from the National Archives.
Prayers by the Kwae Noi
10. Prayers by the Kwae Noi
oil on canvas with mixed media 90 x 60 cm £480
The collaged Japanese writing is the Imperial Japanese Army soldiers ‘prayer’ established in 1883, which, Ronald Searle records in his book, the prisoners would have to chant at sunrise. “A soldier must honour loyalty as his most important virtue; A soldier must be impeccably polite; A soldier must be courageous; A soldier must treasure his principles; A soldier must be frugal”. He goes on to say: “Our dawn chorus over, like good Japanese soldiers we politely, courageously and ever so bloody frugally, pushed off for ten hours or so of Imperial rock-breaking down by the muddy Kwai.” The prayer in English, not in my father’s handwriting, was with his journal. The painting is of the Kwae Noi on the way to Chungkai.
The Bombing og Nong Pladuk
11. The Bombing of Nong Pladuk
oil on canvas with collage 100 x 100 cm £660
After Tamarkan, my father was moved to Nong Pladuk where there were two large POW camps at the junction of the Singapore-Bangkok and Thai-Burma railways. Strategically, this was an inevitable target for the Allies, who by 1944 were increasing their air attacks on Japanese positions. No.1 Camp was situated right by the railway and the prisoners knew they were ‘sitting ducks’. Being bombed by the RAF on the night of 6-7th September 1944 was a terrible experience. 76 prisoners died that night and there were several hundred casualties. This abstract painting began with a rough plan of the area from an aerial photograph, with a print of No.1 Camp and the journal entry as collage.
Three Lives
9. Three Lives - oil on canvas
40 x 100 cm £450
They say a life was lost for every sleeper laid on the difficult sections of the railway. In addition to the 13,000 Allied POWs who died, it is now believed that some 100,000 Asian civilian labourers also perished working on the railway. Lured by the promise of good money, these workers came with wives and children in countless numbers and were treated as badly as the prisoners. There are no records of numbers and who they were. There are no graves.
