Loin cloth : Corporal A K Boyden, 2/12 Field Company, AIF

Japanese issued prisoner of war loin cloth, known coloquially to POWs as a 'Jap Happy' or 'Chowat'. The loin cloth is made from a faded black cotton fabric rectangle, folded upon itself with a cotton drawstring waist. The drawstring ties on one side at the hip.

Arthur Keeling Boyden was born in Melbourne, Victoria, in April 1904. He enlisted in the AIF on 19 June 1940, becoming Corporal NX32792 with 2/12 Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers. Captured by the Japanese at the end of the Malayan campaign, he was held between 1942 and 1945 at Changi POW camp, and various camps on the Burma-Thailand Railway. Boyden was repatriated to Australia and discharged from the AIF on 8 February 1946. Post-war, he became sales manager for North Shore Gas, and died on 30 December 1975.