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Recollections by Norman Clark (nicknamed Nobby) of Eastbourne on Changi Prison in World War II when they were told about the Japanese prisoners being killed in Featherston in 1943. Talks about the Japanese guards on learning of the Featherston riot. Recorded 1960.
(Background provided by his grandson, Michael Pether:
Norman 'Nobby" Muir Clark served with the NZ Field Artillery, NZEF, at Gallipoli where he was awarded the DCM for bravery on Hill 60.
From 1918 he worked at sea as a marine engineer until 1934 when he became a water works engineer in Shanghai, China. He was there with his wife and two children when the Japanese invaded.
He moved in 1940 to Malaya as a tin mining engineer, then on to Singapore as a rice mill engineer as the Japanese moved south.
When the Japanese invaded, Nobby was taken prisoner along with his son in law Harold Pether until 1945.
His only son went missing while fighting in the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force.
After the war, Nobby spent several years as an engineer in Malaya, whilst in fact searching for his son. He lived in retirement in Dunedin, then Wellington.)