Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria including the collection to Naval Artificers formed by JH Deacon

Five: Private W. Cairns, Manchester Regiment

General Service 1918-62, 1 clasp, Palestine (3525579 Pte., Manch.); 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals, the first with minor contact wear, otherwise extremely fine (5) £250-300

William “Bill” Cairns was taken P.O.W. at the fall of Singapore in February 1942, while serving with the 1st (Machine-Gun) Battalion, Manchester Regiment. In the lead up to Percival’s much criticised surrender, the Manchesters fought with distinction and witnessed many Japanese atrocities, some of which were inflicted on their own men - see Michael Moore’s Battalion at War, Singapore 1942. And worse was to follow in the years of captivity, many of them, including Cairns, being employed on the Thai-Burma railway. Cairns succumbed to cholera on 13 October 1943, aged 28 years, and was re-interred in the Thanbyuzayat War Cemetery, Thailand, after the War.

He is mentioned in Arthur Lane’s Lesser Gods Greater Devils, a copy of which book is included in the Lot, together with an accompanying letter from the author: ‘Bill was a very slim young man with a sallow complexion, which belied his love of life. Always singing and smiling, as well as being a bit of practical joker.’