Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 3rd issue, coinage head (J. 87016 F. P. L. Desvergez, A.B., H.M.S. Glorious) edge nicks, very fine £80-100

Francis P. L. Desvergez died as a P.O.W. of the Japanese at Macassar on the Island of Celebes on 16 April 1944, having endured captivity since late February 1942, when his ship, the cruiser H.M.S. Exeter, was sunk after a gallant action against a far superior enemy force (see A Dictionary of Disasters at Sea for further details).

Quite a few accounts survive of the horrendous conditions endured by the R.N. and R.M. personnel who were interned at Macassar, not least Never Forget, Nor Forgive, by Captain G. T. Cooper, R.N., himself an ex-Exeter hand. Indeed such was the scale of the atrocities carried out by the Japanese at this camp that a number of eye-witness accounts were taken down for possible use at subsequent war crimes tribunals. Some of these are recounted in Lord Russell of Liverpool’s The Knights of Bushido, A Short History of Japanese War Crimes (326pp.), as indeed are the general conditions endured by men like Francis Desvergez:

‘At the camp of Macassar itself the accomodation was very bad. The camp was grossly overcrowded and the prisoners had no furniture, no bedding, and no issue of clothing.

They were overworked and employed on prohibited tasks. The old and the infirm were also made to work.

The sanitary conditions were appalling and the medical supplies quite inadequate, and it was small wonder that dysentery and malaria were rampant. The death rate from deficiency diseases, due to malnutrition, was also high.

No Red Cross parcels were distributed, no recreation was provided, even singing was forbidden, and the prisoners received no mail.

Discipline was maintained, in the usual way, by a system of terrorization and severe and frequent corporal punishment.

The prisoners were made to climb up trees which were full of red ants, and had to remain there; they were beaten into unconsciousness resulting in bruises and cracked ribs. The commandant himself took part in the beatings. The prisoners also underwent some of the standard Kempei Tai tortures ...’

In common with several hundred R.N. and R.M. personnel who were interred in the camp cemetery, Desvergez’s remains were moved to the Ambon War Cemetery, Indonesia after the War. He was 44 years of age at the time of his death, and left a widow resident at Turnchapel, Devon.