As the media whips itself into a (I believe, distasteful) frenzy about all-things Titanic related, I spare a thought for my granddad Archie Miller who endured the violent attack and forced abandonment of his own ship, Willesden, in the middle of the South Atlantic on 1 April 1942.
Aged only 21 at the time, Archie grew up in the slums of Glasgow and had been a baker and a boxer before signing up and becoming a Gunner in the Army, eventually deployed on Merchant Navy vessel Willesden.
Sailors get to see the world, and in the course of his military service Archie spent time in South America. Once aboard Willesden he saw New York and sailed to St Thomas in the Caribbean before heading across the Atlantic to Cape Town en route to north Africa.
His brother in England received a telegram to say that Archie was dead. His Post Office savings were transferred to his brother. Later, word came from Japan that he was alive.
I recently found this report by A Joyce that details what happened to my granddad's ship and his shipmates. They were attached from the air, sunk, captured by the Germans and then transported to Japan to be transferred into Japanese prisoner of war camps. He was liberated at Kawasaki Camp on 29 August 1945 and returned to Great Britain on the Empress of Australia, apparently via Singapore.
A Joyce's article is on the website of the charity called Children of Far East Prisoners of War: www.cofepow.org.uk/pages/armedforces_ms_willesden.htm
This story by David Wilson gives a little more detail about what happened to the prisoners after their arrival in Japan. My granddad never spoke to me about the War; on the very, very rare occasions when he spoke with my father about it (maybe just once) he declared no bitterness towards the Japanese people. Read about conditions at Kawasaki Camp 1 here - includes photo of the site as well as of Willesden: www.war-experience.org/collections/sea/alliedbrit/wilson/default.asp
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