Changi

Pond, Samuel Austin Frank

PR87/136

Request at location

Copyright expired. Copying permitted subject to physical condition. Permission for reproduction not required.

Full title: Pond, Samuel Austin Frank (Lieutenant Colonel, 2/29th Bn AIF and POW Changi)

1 wallet: 4 cms; 1 custom box: 5 cms

Collection relating to the Second World War service of Lt Col Samuel Austin Frank Pond, officer commanding 2/29 Battalion. The collection consists a 1942-1945 diary kept as a prisoner of war in Changi after the fall of Singapore; regimental roll of 2/29 Battalion; a published history of 2/29 Battalion; a handbook “A Progressive Course of Physical Exercises” (1915); a leaflet “Distribution – amongst former prisoners of War of the Japanese – of Moneys available from the Liquidation of Japanese Assets in Australia”; a letter written on Christmas Day 1942 to Pond from a fellow POW, Cyril Wild; a note accompanying a presentation to Wild written by Pond; an empty envelope addressed to Pond from his wife; two newspaper cuttings; and an obituary.

The diary contains biographical, medical (death statistics) and general notes as well as a daily record of events. Pond wrote the diary in a number of languages, but predominately French, in an effort to delay any punishment the Japanese might exact on him if the diary were discovered. The regimental roll was kept by WO1 Heath Watus RSM during the Burma Thailand railway construction and records movements, illnesses and the fate of battalion members.

Diaries

Correspondence