Brown, Raymond John Tressillain (Private, b.1919 - d.2006)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of NX29116 Private John Tressillian Brown, 2/30 Australian Infantry Battalion, Second Australian Imperial Force, Australia, 1990.

Wallet 1 of 1 – Consists of one copy of memoir by Private John Tressillian Brown, written in 1990. This memoir covers the period of Private Brown’s enlistment, training, service with 2/30 Australian Imperial Force in Malaya, and time as a prisoner of war in Singapore and Japan. In his memoir, Private Brown writes about hearing the Australian declaration of war, his early days of training in New South Wales, getting married, embarkation, his first impressions of Malaya, undergoing jungle training, doing training exercises to prepare for Japanese invasion, being posted in a village that had been forcibly evacuated, being part of an ambush on the advancing Japanese forces, being severely injured after engaging with four Japanese soldiers, having his wounds treated in a hospital, and being captured by the Japanese as a prisoner of war. Private Brown goes on to write about settling in to Changi Prisoner of War Camp, being on work parties, having various serious illnesses, being sent to Japan as part of J Force, settling into Kobe Prisoner of War Camp, working at a steel factory, unloading barges, smuggling contraband food into the camp, large Allied air raids, being sent to work inland, planting rice, hearing news of the end of the war, supply drops to the camp, and his return to Australia.