During 1945 more than a thousand emaciated prisoners of war (POW) set out under Japanese guard from Sandakan POW Camp, in what became known as the Sandakan Death Marches, of which only six survived after escaping. None of the fourteen hundred POWs who remained at Sandakan was alive at war's end. Two of the men who died were Greenwich locals and friends.
Historian and researcher Lynette Ramsay Silver AM MBE will discuss Sandakan, the marches, and the events before, and after, these horrific incidents. Lynette, author of Sandakan: A Conspiracy of Silence and Blood Brothers, has established the route taken by the soldiers, through the jungle to Ranau.
Bookings essential.
Image caption: Carrying the rice [on one of the Sandakan Death Marches]. Artist unknown. (Courtesy L.Ramsay Silver/Kundasang War Memorial Gardens)