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Auction: 19003 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 266

(x) Six: Signalman C. Woolfson, Royal Signals, late Gordon Highlanders; captured by the Japanese on the first day of the fall of Singapore, he was held prisoner of war at Tarmakan, the infamous labour camp upon which the film 'Bridge on the River Kwai' is based

1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Korea 1950-53 (2875509 Sigmn. C. Woolfson. R. Sigs.); U.N. Korea 1950-54, the last two mounted as worn, nearly extremely fine (6)

Cecil Woolfson was born at Dumfries on 2 November 1916. He lived in Shotesham, Norfolk, and enlisted into the 2nd Battalion, Gordon Highlanders on 8 November 1934. He was captured at the Fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. His service record notes that he was imprisoned at Adam Park, Tarmakan, Kinsyok Chung Kai, Nong Pladuk and Ubon camps. Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Toosey was the senior British officer at Tarmakan, where the Japanese forced the prisoners to construct a railway bridge over the River Kwai for the Burma-Siam Railway. The conditions at Tarmakan were appalling. 300 men including Woolfson were packed into each bamboo hut, with an allocation of 18 inches of space. Toosey later recalled: 'Every form of cruelty that an uncivilised mind could invent was used on the prisoners.'

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Sold for
£180

Starting price
£140