Five: Lieutenant G. M. ‘Tiger’ Coltart, Singapore Royal Artillery Volunteers, a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese who worked as slave labour on the ‘Death Railway’ in Thailand

1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals, these unnamed; Efficiency Medal, G.VI.R., 2nd issue, Malaya (Lieut. G. M. Coltart) good very fine (5) £300-350

Gilbert McCallum Coltart was born in Oswestry, on 14 May 1906. He subsequently worked in the Colonies and was a
Solicitor, Partner for Radyk & Davidson, of 4 Raffles Place, Singapore. Arriving in Singapore in 1929, he was granted a commission in the Singapore Royal Artillery Volunteers, (S.S.V.F.) on 8 May 1929. At the time of his commission his addresses were given as ‘C/O D. W. S. Coltart, Chilworth, Chichester’, or ‘C/O Chartered Bank of India, Australia & China, Singapore’. A keen yachtsman, he won the 'Illawarra Cup' at the Singapore Yacht Club in 1933.

During the Second World War, having previously tried to escape from Singapore, Lieutenant Coltart was wounded on 17 February 1942, two days after the official surrender, when hit in the neck by a shell fragment from an exploding ammunition dump. His P.O.W. Questionnaire states:

‘At 02:00Hrs on the 16th February 1942 I took 5 O.R’s. of my section to the R.S.Y.C. (Royal Singapore Yacht Club) Club House, to investigate the possibility of escaping in my 24Ft. Yacht ‘Mowgli’. I found the yacht in question in such a foundering state that I abandoned the project for 24 hours hoping that the vessel would swell up and become less leaky. Before I could carry out my plan the next day I was wounded in the neck by a shell fragment from an exploding ammunition dump at Beach Rd., Singapore and taken to hospital where I was detained for 3 weeks’.

Taken Prisoner-of-War he was interred at Changi P.O.W. Camp on 1 March 1942 until 28 October 1942 when he was moved to Thailand, for work as 'Slave Labour' on the ‘Death Railway’. In Thailand he was held at camps at Linsayok, 14 November-15 December 1942; Kenyu, 15 December 1942-4 April 1943; Chungkai, 4 April 1943-17 May 1944; Tamuang, 17 May 1944-21 January 1945; Kanchanburi, 21 January-28 June 1945, and Nakawng Nyok, 5 July-2 September 1945. The camp leader at Kanchanburi was the legendary Lieutenant-Colonel Toosey.

On being asked in his returned prisoners of war questionnaire: ‘Did you observe any courageous acts performed by allied personnel’, he gave the answer: ‘The operation of secret wireless receiving sets in Kanyu, Chungkai, Tamuang, and Kanchanburi Camps, exact personnel not known with accuracy, refer to British Camp Commandants in question’.

In the ‘any other matters’ section, he stated: ‘Large sums of money were smuggled into Chungkai Camp during the period I was interned. This through the custom mentality of British Civilians interred in Bangkok. A Chinese/Thai called Pong and Lieutenant R. Hills (S.S.V.F.) used the money to purchase food which undoubtedly saved many lives of P.O.W’s’

His wife Mary and child were evacuated to Adelaide before the fall of Singapore. Coltart had the nicknamed ‘Tiger’ - apparently not for his fearlessness but for a particular pair of striped swimming trunks that he wore! Gilbert McCallum Coltart died in October 2004 at Haywards Heath.

With copied P.O.W. Questionnaire; card medal box; original medal forwarding slip and postcard photograph.